A  MEXICAN  JOURNEY 

C»«y 

E.  H,  BLICHFELDT 


CHAUTAUQUA 
HOME  READING  SERIES 


AU»RARY 


A  MEXICAN  JOURNEY 


BY 

E.  H.  BLICHFELDT 

ILLUSTRATED 


fflljmtimtqitct 

CHAUTAUQUA,  NEW  YORK 

MCMXIX 


The  Chautauqua  Literary 
and  Scientific  Circle 

Home    Reading    Department    of    Chautauqua    Institution 
Founded  in  1878 

This  volume  is  part  of  a  system  of  home  reading  the  es- 
sential features  of  which  are : 

1.  A  Definite  Course  covering  four  years,  and  including  History, 

Literature,  Art,  Travel,  Science,  etc.     (A  reader  may  enroll 
for  only  one  year.)     No  examinations. 

2.  Specified  Volumes  approved  'by  the  Councillors.      Many  of  the 

books  are  specially  prepared  for  the  purpose. 

3.  Allotment  of  Time.     The  reading  is  apportioned  by  the  week 

and  month. 

4.  Current  Topics,  week  by  week,  in  one  of  the  foremost  publica- 

tions in  America,  The  Independent. 

5.  A  Monthly  Bulletin,  The  Round  Table,  giving  helps  and  hints 

for  home  study,  circle  programs,  notes  from  the  field,  teach- 
ing and  illustrative  material. 

6.  A  Question  Book,  serving  as  the  outline  of  a  written  report 

on    each    year's    reading,    should    the    individual    choose    to 
make  such. 

7.  Individual  Readers,  no  matter  how  isolated,  may  have  all  the 
privileges. 

8.  Local  Circles  may  ibe  formed  by  three  or  more  members  for 
mutual  aid  and  encouragement. 

9.  The  Time  Required  is  no  more  than  the  average  person  wastes 

in  disconnected,  desultory  reading. 

10.  Certificates  are  granted  each  year  and  a  diploma  at  the  end  of 

four  years  to  all  who  complete  the  course. 

The  annual  cost  is  $6  for  books,  The  Independent,  The  Round 
Table,  enrollment,  and  all  necessary  helps.  For  full  information 
address 

CHAUTAUQUA  INSTITUTION 
CffJiAUTAUQUA,  N.  Y. 


PREFACE 

OST  of  what  appears  in  the  following 
pages  was  first  written  for  the  Chau- 
tauquan  magazine,  though  all  has 
been  carefully  revised  for  its  present  use.  If 
the  fruits  of  laborious  original  research  ap- 
pear anywhere,  it  is  the  research  of  some  one 
besides  the  author.  His  debt  in  this  way  is 
informally  suggested  by  the  text,  except  when 
it  relates  to  things  now  become  common  prop- 
erty, and  calling  for  no  special  acknowledg- 
ment. The  opinions  and  sentiments  expressed 
regarding  our  Mexican  neighbors,  on  the  con- 
trary, may  be  taken  as  at  first  hand.  Here 
also  the  writer  would  be  presumptuous  to  set 
up  any  claims  as  a  discoverer  or  to  deny  that 
he  owes  much  to  teachers  and  prompters. 
These  opinions  and  sentiments,  however,  are 
such  as  without  falsity  he  may  call  his  .own, 
and  grow  out  of  alert,  sympathetic  contact 
and  correspondence  with  Mexicans  for  several 
years.  If  the  reader  can  be  made  to  adopt 

iii 


PREFACE 

them  by  the  somewhat  impressionistic  account 
here  given,  the  only  deliberate  purpose  of  the 
book  will  have  been  served.  For  the  most 
part  even  this  has  been  quite  subordinate  to 
the  impulse  that  Henry  Ward  Beecher  de- 
clared when  he  said,  "There  are  some  things 
that  cannot  be  seen  satisfactorily  with  less 
than  four  eyes."  The  delights  of  travel  in 
Mexico  are  such  as  one  would  like  to  share., 


PREFATORY  NOTE  TO  1919  EDITION:— So  far  as  this  book 
is  a  record  of  easy,  somewhat  irresponsible  travels,  it  is  unchanged 
since  the  first  edition.  The  last  tour  described  was  made  in  1911, 
just  when  the  Madero  revolution  had  got  well  under  way.  Since 
then,  adventurous  students,  with  quite  special  credentials,  have 
made  their  way  to  capital  and  rebel  camp  alike,  and  representatives 
of  important  Toreign  interests  have  held  on  here  and  there;  but  to 
the  casual  visitor,  Mexico  has  been  closed. 

It  matters  little,  for  the  aspects  of  the  country  dwelt  upon  are 
either  unaltered  or  altered  in  ways  not  yet  confirmed.  That  the 
sailing  route  of  the  Ward  Line  steamers  in  1919  differs  from  that  of 
1911,  for  example,  is  unimportant  for  the  purpose  in  mind. 

The  historical  narrative,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been  supple- 
mented; and  political  comment  has  been  adapted  to  new  facts. 


CONTENTS 

HAPTER  PAGE 

I.  MEXICO 1 

II.  THE  MEXICANS 10 

III.  GOING 23 

IV.  HENEQUIN 41 

V.  VERA  CRUZ 57 

VI.  TEHUANTEPEC  AND  THE  JUNGLE    ...  67 

VII.  OAXACA .    .  92 

VIII.  To  MITLA  AND  BACK 100 

IX.  MEXICO  CITY 109 

X.  SIGHT-SEEING  AT  THE  CAPITAL  .    .    .    .119 

XI.  THE  GOVERNMENT 145 

XII.  XOCHIMILCO 164 

XIII.  CUERNAVACA,  CuAUTLA,  PuEBLA  .  .  .  173 

XIV.  A  TOLTEC  PYRAMID 182 

XV.  HIGHER  THAN  THE  ALPS 190 

XVI.  TOWNS  AND  MORE  TOWNS  .  .   202 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII.  A  RIDE  TO  REGLA 210 

XVIII.  THE  WEST  AND  NORTH  .  .  .  .  .  .  .220 

XIX.  TIDES  THAT  MEET 235 

XX.  CUSTOMS  AND  COMPARISONS 248 

XXI.  LAST  WORDS  .  .  ' .  .  .  .  .  ...  .  .257 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 

INDEX  .  .  273 


A  MEXICAN  JOURNEY 


COPYRIGHT,  1912, 
BY  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY. 


Published  September,  ISIS. 


A   Mexican  Journey 


MEXICO 

IF  you  will  join  our  company  going  to 
Mexico,  I  promise  to  show  you  things  en- 
joyable to  see — things  that  have  been  a 
source  of  unfailing  pleasure  to  me  myself. 
You  will  see  them  as  I  did  on  a  visit  a  few 
months  ago.*  Along  the  way  I  shall  not 
wholly  refrain  from  telling  you  of  earlier  hap- 
penings and  experiences  that  come  back  to 
one  on  familiar  ground  after  an  absence;  it 
would  be  hard  to  exclude  these,  and  I  feel 
sure  of  your  good-humored  consent.  Do  not 
expect  learned  instruction  on  any  scholarly 
subject,  though  if  that  is  what  you  want  per- 
haps I  can  tell  you  where  to  find  it.  For  the 
most  part  I  know  it  will  not  be  desired.  Here 
and  there  an  intelligent  visitor  is  likely  to  ask 
questions;  and  at  such  points,  without  going 
to  excess,  I  will  tell  you  a  little  of  what  I 

*1911  1 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

understand  the  scholars  and  thinkers  have  con- 
cluded. It  is  not  an  analysis  but  a  survey 
that  we  shall  try  to  make,  however, — not  an 
investigation  but  a  pleasant,  wide-awake  jour- 
ney together.  If  in  its  progress  you  grow 
as  fond  of  Mexico  and  the  Mexicans  as  I  have 
long  been,  you  will  feel  that  acquaintance 
with  them  is  abundantly  worth  whatever  time 
and  effort  it  may  have  cost.  . . 

On  any  but  the  idlest  excursion  every  one 
is  fore-minded  to  a  degree.  Let  us  not  ac- 
tually set  out,  therefore,  till  we  have  inquired 
briefly  who  the  Mexicans  are,  what  their  an- 
tecedents, environment,  and  condition,  and 
what  prejudices  and  ideals  we  may  look  for 
among  them. 

Mexico  is  not  so  large  by  half  as  it  was 
before  the  war  with  the  United  States,  known 
in  American  history  as  the  Mexican  War.  To 
be  more  exact,  we  should  say  before  the  Texan 
War  for  Independence;  but  Mexicans  think 
of  Texas  as  having  been  wrested  from  them 
by  the  same  strategy  which  ended  in  their  loss 
of  that  greater  neighboring  area  since  carved 
up,  roughly  speaking,  into  a  half-dozen  other 
states  and  territories  of  the  American  Union. 
Till  1835  their  domain  was  nearly  equal  to 


MEXICO 

that  of  the  United  States,  or  to  the  whole 
of  Europe  leaving  out  Russia  and  Turkey. 
Even  now,  what  remains  to  them  would  be 
enough  to  encompass  Great  Britain,  Ireland, 
France,  Germany,  and  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire.  That  its  natural  resources  will  sus- 
tain such  a  comparison  can  here  be  neither 
asserted  nor  denied,  but  the  scientist  and  the 
explorer  go  far  beyond  the  mere  tourist  in 
appreciation  of  its  riches.  Where  the  tourist 
sees  only  desert,  they  see  the  waving  green 
and  yellow  of  potential  harvests.  If  they  dis- 
count at  all  the  reckless  enthusiasm  of  pro- 
moters beguiling  the  American  investor,  it  is 
not  regarding  the  latent  wealth  of  the  country, 
but  regarding  the  ease  with  which  settlers 
totally  lacking  in  experience  may  grow  rub- 
ber on  impossible  land  bought  at  random,  or 
market  pineapples  irrespective  of  means  for 
transportation.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
country  will  feed  and  clothe  some  added  mil- 
lions of  people,  and  that  it  hides  mineral 
wealth  either  to  supply  the  necessaries  of 
still  other  millions,  or  to  barter  for  what- 
ever may  be  lacking.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
in  its  undeveloped  resources  we  are  consider- 
ing no  insignificant  country.  Then  let  us 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

pass  from  things  that  might  or  that  doubtless 
may  be  to  things  that  have  been  and  are. 

The  mantle  of  natural  verdure  and  primi- 
tive human  graces,  of  medieval  romance  sur- 
viving in  a  practical  age,  of  hospitality,  of 
leisure,  and  of  pride  which  have  been  painted 
for  us  by  the  hands  of  such  writers  as  Mr. 
F.  Hopkinson  Smith — this  mantle  is  spread 
over  a  rugged  and  highly  substantial  frame- 
work, concerning  which  one  refers,  with  an 
appropriate  feeling  of  solidity,  to  Alexander 
von  Humboldt.  The  geologic  framework  will 
be  suggested  to  travelers  in  the  United  States 
by  saying  that  it  exhibits  yet  more  strongly 
the  qualities,  as  plainly  it  continues  the  sys- 
tem, not  of  the  Appalachian,  but  of  the  west- 
ern highlands  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
rugged,  Titanic,  challenging,  not  rounded  and 
softened  as  though  it  grew  ready  ages  ago  to 
invite  the  coming  of  civilized  man.  The  stu- 
dious reader  may  consult  Humboldt  and  later 
supplemental  investigations,  while  others  con- 
tent themselves  for  the  moment  with  this 
general  hint.  Not  gentle  little  hills  like  sheep 
in  a  meadow,  but  towering  and  bristling 
giants  amid  shatterings  of  a  world  stand  in 
Mexico  for  mountain  scenery. 

4 


Even  while  giving  this  description  I  recall 
a  very  different  one  which  may  well  be  quoted 
here.  Charles  Macomb  Flandrau,  in  his  highly 
suggestive  and  entertaining,  though  often 
cynical  and  at  times  flippantly  careless  "Viva 
Mexico,"  says: 

"The  view  from  the  piazza  was  characteristic  of 
the  mountainous,  tropical  parts  of  Mexico,  and,  like 
most  of  the  views  there,  combined  both  the  grandeur, 
the  awfulness  of  space  and  height — of  eternal,  un- 
trodden snows  piercing  the  thin  blue — with  the  soft 
velvet  beauty  of  tropical  verdure,  the  unimaginable 
delicacy  and  variety  of  color  that  glows  and  palpi- 
tates in  vast  areas  of  tropical  foliage  seen  at  different 
distances  through  haze  and  sunlight.  Mountains 
usually  have  an  elemental,  geologic  sex  of  some  sort, 
and  the  sex  of  slumbering,  jungle-covered,  tropical 
mountains  is  female.  There  is  a  symmetry,  a  chaste 
volcanic  elegance  about  them  that  renders  them  the 
consorts  and  daughters  of  man-mountains  like,  say, 
the  Alps,  the  Rockies,  or  the  mountains  of  the  Cau- 
casus." 

The  description  just  quoted,  however,  is 
true  only  of  what  it  represents,  and  it  repre- 
sents the  mountains  with  which,  doubtless,  the 
author  is  most  intimately  acquainted.  The 
mountains  with  which  I  lived  from  day  to 
day  in  Mexico  for  three  years  rise  from  plains 
already  too  high  for  tropical  or  even  semi- 

5 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

tropical  conditions,  and  hold  their  peaks  from 
two  to  three  and  one-half  miles  perpendicu- 
larly above  sea-level.  They  are,  I  believe,  of 
the  sort  that  one  usually  means  in  speaking 
of  mountainous  Mexico.  The  other  picture, 
however,  will  have  value  to  us,  not  only  for 
intrinsic  beauty,  but  also  as  showing  how 
almost  everything  Mexican  defies  simple  and 
summary  treatment.  The  country  is  one  of 
well-nigh  unlimited  variety,  of  sharp  con- 
trasts, and  of  apparent  contradictions.  Snow 
and  burning  desert,  oak  and  palm  and  steam- 
ing jungle  growth,  are  all  to  be  found  in  the 
1500  miles  between  Sonora  and  Yucatan. 
More  impressively,  indeed,  they  will  all  ap- 
pear in  a  cross-section,  to  be  accomplished  by 
one  day's  travel.  One  may  drink  chocolate 
and  cinnamon  on  the  warm  Gulf  shore  in  the 
morning,  pass  upward  through  the  altitudes 
of  cocoanut,  orange,  coffee  and  banana,  sugar 
and  cotton,  during  the  next  two  or  three 
hours,  and  by  eleven  o'clock,  if  a  "norther" 
happens  to  be  blowing,  draw  on  a  heavy  coat 
for  warmth,  while  looking  upward  across  the 
dry  table-land  to  slumbering  volcanoes  capped 
with  snows  that  never  melt.  Mexico  is  a  land 
of  contrasts. 

6 


MEXICO 

A  notion  that  the  tarry-at-home  traveler 
must  dismiss  before  he  can  rightly  conceive 
of  Mexico,  is  that  latitude  determines  temper- 
ature. Latitude  is  one  of  a  number  of  con- 
ditions that  have  their  influence  on  climate, 
but  no  one  of  them  can  ever  be  assumed  to 
determine  temperature  until  the  others  have 
been  taken  into  account.  The  northern  fringe 
of  New  York  State  along  Lake  Erie,  which 
has  become  famous  as  a  "grape  belt,"  has  as 
mild  a  climate  as  parts  of  eastern  Kentucky, 
and  there  are  points  on  the  coast  of  Alaska 
where  the  winter  is  less  severe  than  in  either 
of  the  localities  just  compared.  Of  all  the 
conditions  that  go  to  determine  climate,  alti- 
tude is  the  one  that  figures  most  surprisingly 
to  the  New  Englander  when  Mexico  is  being 
studied.  At  least  one  Mexican  guide-book 
has,  and  all  such  guide-books  ought  to  have, 
tables  of  elevation  for  the  important  places  on 
the  map.  All  other  elements  being  normal, 
an  altitude  of  less  than  3000  feet  will  give  a 
hot  climate  in  any  part  of  the  republic.  An 
altitude  between  3000  and  7000  feet  will  give 
a  temperate  climate,  and  an  altitude  from 
7000  up  to  14,000  feet  will  give  a  cold  climate. 
One  does  not  speak  at  al}  of  climate  in  the 

7 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY  . 

snow  belt  of  Mexico,  because  snow  and  vegeta- 
tion do  not  alternate  there,  and  life  cannot  in 
any  natural  way  be  supported.  The  snow  line 
is  about  14,000  feet  above  sea-level.  The  gen- 
eral level  in  that  vast  part  of  Mexico  known 
as  the  Plateau  has  an  elevation  of  6000  to 
8000  feet.  Suppose,  however,  that  we  mean 
by  a  hot  climate  an  average  temperature 
throughout  the  year  of  about  85  degrees,  still 
it  is  true  that  the  greatest  extreme  of  heat 
will  not  exceed  that  in  New  York,  and  the 
discomfort  caused  by  it  will  be  less  than  in 
New  York.  Similarly,  if  by  a  cold  climate 
we  mean  a  yearly  average  temperature  of  60 
degrees,  it  will  be  found  that  the  thermometer 
rarely  goes  so  low  as  freezing,  even  in  winter. 
A  moment's  reflection  will  now  make  it  clear 
that  variations  up  or  down  in  a  given  locality 
are  much  less  than  they  are  farther  north. 
This  would  be  inferred  from  the  latitude,  as 
seasonal  changes  are  generally  less  marked 
nearer  the  equator. 

If  the  differences  between  winter  and  sum- 
mer are  less,  the  differences  between  night  and 
day  are  more,  and  those  between  shady  and 
sunny  sides  of  a  street  far  more,  than  in  New 
York  or  Chicago.  Even  above  8000  feet  the 

8 


MEXICO 

noonday  sun  is  fierce,  yet  in  the  shade  there 
is  never  a  day  above  that  altitude  when  the 
"shirt-waist  man"  from  New  York  would  sit 
long  without  his  coat.  At  a  given  tempera- 
ture he  would  feel  much  colder  than  at  home, 
probably  because  evaporation  from  the  skin 
is  more  rapid,  as  well  as  because  of  the  rarer 
atmosphere  and  consequent  smaller  intake  of 
oxygen.  If  ordinarily  blessed  with  good  cir- 
culation, the  northerner  will  be  surprised  that, 
even  when  the  thermometer  registers  several 
degrees  above  freezing,  he  needs  winter  under- 
wear and  a  heavy  overcoat.  A  phenomenon 
well  known  to  mountain  climbers  and  physi- 
cists, but  new  to  many  visitors,  is  .that  the  de- 
creased air  pressure  allows  water  to  boil  at 
lower  temperature,  and  an  egg  or  any  vege- 
table cooked  in  it  must  be  kept  longer  over 
the  fire.  The  atmospheric  pressure  at  Mexico 
City,  for  example,  is  fourteen  pounds  to  the 
square  inch.  This  is  a  mere  detail;  but  it  rep- 
resents a  whole  set  of  conditions  for  which  the 
visiting  lowlander  is  never  quite  prepared, 
however  much  he  may  have  heard  and  read 
about  them. 


9 


II 

THE   MEXICANS 

SOMEWHAT  like  the  diversity  of  the 
land  is  the  diversity  of  its  people. 
Among  them  are  about  six  millions  be- 
longing to  the  native  races,  over  six  millions 
of  mixed  blood,  and  three  million  whites.  If 
we  could  assign  to  each  of  these  three  classes 
its  relative  place  in  the  social  and  economic 
scale,  you  would  no  doubt  welcome  the  con- 
venience. This  is  impossible.  There  is  a  so- 
cial and  economic  scale  with  well-marked 
gradations,  but  in  applying  its  test,  race  can 
hardly  be  said  to  figure.  It  is  true  that  among 
those  occupying  the  highest  station,  pure  In- 
dians are  rare,  and  that  among  those  occupy- 
ing the  lowest  station,  the  pure  white  does  not 
exist,  the  occasional  American  tramp  being 
outside  our  discussion.  The  fact  remains, 
however,  that  there  is  no  relation  in  industry, 
profession,  business,  politics,  or  formal  so- 
ciety from  which  the  pure  Indian  would  be 

10 


THE    MEXICANS 

debarred,  or  for  aspiring  to  which  he  would 
not  have  ample  warrant  in  law,  sentiment,  and 
historic  example.  Benito  Juarez,  the  greatest 
Mexican  who  has  ever  lived  and  the  greatest 
object  of  national  veneration  to-day,  was  a 
full-blooded  Indian.  Porfirio  Diaz  was  one- 
fourth  Indian  according  to  his  approved  biog- 
raphers, but  intelligent  Mexicans  generally 
believe  him  to  have  been  three-fourths,  and 
they  do  not  say  this  to  disparage  him.  For  a 
Mexican  of  European  ancestry  to  disdain  a 
Mexican  of  somewhat  mixed  blood,  or  for  one 
of  mixed  blood  to  treat  a  cultured  Indian  as 
inferior,  because  in  him  the  native  blood  per- 
haps of  princes  has  never  been  mingled  for 
better  or  worse  with  a  foreign  strain — either 
of  these  demonstrations  of  arrogance  would,  I 
suppose,  be  unique  in  recent  times.  There  are 
families  who  take  a  harmless  pride  in  declar- 
ing themselves  Creoles  of  pure  Spanish  ex- 
traction. A  writer  already  mentioned,  how- 
ever, says  that  most  unadulterated  Spaniards 
in  the  republic  are  "either  priests  or  grocers." 
Bull-fighters  are  another  contingent.  A  gov- 
ernor of  one  of  the  Mexican  states  once  said 
to  me  after  speaking  of  his  own  lineage: 
"Very  few  of  us  here,  if  we  are  Mexicans  of 

11 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

more  than  two  or  three  generations,  can  tell 
what  proportion  of  native  Indian  blood  we 
may  have."  It  might  have  been  replied  that, 
even  so,  they  are  not  much  farther  from  a 
complete  racial  analysis  of  themselves  than 
some  of  the  rest  of  mankind. 

It  very  soon  ceases  to  be  a  surprise,  then, 
to  find  in  the  learned  professions  and  in  im- 
portant positions  of  various  kinds,  people  of 
the  original  Mexican  stock.  Perhaps  the  fact 
that  all  of  these  are  not  equally  dark,  that 
some  Spaniards  are  far  from  light,  and  that 
the  natives  often  have  splendid  heads  and 
finely  chiseled  features  has  as  much  to  do  with 
the  state  of  affairs  as  the  undoubted  capacity 
of  many  of  the  Indians. 

In  the  entire  absence  of  a  race  problem,  for 
which  Mexicans  ought  to  be  grateful,  eco- 
nomic differences  are  as  sharp  and  distinctions 
are  as  clearly  drawn  as  elsewhere.  There  is 
perhaps  no  country  equally  civilized  where  the 
educational,  political,  and  material  welfare  of 
the  laboring  people  has  advanced  less  and 
where  their  condition  presents  more  cruel,  and 
at  the  same  time  more  immemorially  pictur- 
esque phases  than  in  Mexico.  The  problem  of 
lifting  them  to  a  distinctly  higher  plane  of 


THE    MEXICANS 

life  is  the  immediate  and  urgent  problem  of 
the  nation.  It  was  the  justification  for  the 
Madero  revolution,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  alleged  grievances  of  other  classes.  It  is 
the  matter  concerning  which  the  Diaz  regime 
must  give  its  most  important  final  account, 
however  great  the  progress  made  in  material 
development.  We  may  assume  that  Presi- 
dent Diaz  and  his  friends  recognized  this;  it 
was  one  of  their  boasts,  whether  founded  on 
exact  truth  and  complete  knowledge  or  not, 
that  in  Diaz's  native  state,  Oaxaca,  illiteracy 
had  been  reduced  from  sixty  per  cent,  to  eight 
per  cent.  Still,  removing  illiteracy  in  its  tech- 
nical implication  by  extending  the  mere  ability 
to  read  and  write  is  not  a  complete  cure. 
President  Madero  at  once  declared  his  realiza- 
tion that  something  larger  and  more  funda- 
mental is  demanded  and  that  the  problem  is 
nation-wide.  Henceforth,  indeed,  it  cannot 
be  ignored.  But  when  at  length  its  solution 
is  reached,  we  feel  that  also  one  of  the  most 
engaging,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  to  the 
imagination,  of  all  the  figures  in  the  pageant 
of  human  life  will  have  passed  forever.  The 
gentle,  graceful,  submissive,  but  well-nigh 
unconquerable  and  wholly  inscrutable  child 

13 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  the  ancient  Aztecs,  Chichimecs,  and  still 
earlier  Toltecs,  whoever  they  may  have  been, 
will  have  given  place  to  some  other,  and 
doubtless  a  newly  composite  type. 

In  writing  the  history  of  England,  scholars 
can  give  us  little  more  than  conjecture  until 
the  advent  of  the  Romans.  Our  British  an- 
cestors neglected  to  make  for  us  any  intelli- 
gible record  before  that  event.  Similarly, 
authentic  knowledge  of  Mexico  begins  but 
little  previous  to  the  arrival  thither  of  the 
gold-hunting,  proselyting,  and  bloodthirsty 
Spaniards,  who  were  the  first  bringers  of  the 
white  man's  civilization.  Of  the  records  that 
existed,  very  many  were  ruthlessly  destroyed, 
and  of  the  rest  only  a  small  part  have  been 
deciphered.  The  advance  toward  civilization 
on  this  continent,  as  in  Europe,  had  had  its 
ebbs  and  flows,  had  been  broken  rather  than 
continuous.  The  Mexicans  whom  Cortez  and 
his  valiant  murderers  overcame  knew  little 
and  said  less  of  their  remote  predecessors.  If 
the  Spaniards  wondered  at  this  they  may  also 
have  recalled  similar  lapses  at  home,  seeing 
that  for  generations  the  invading  Moors,  so 
lately  withdrawn  from  Spain,  had  been  the 
only  preservers  of  classic  Greek  and  Latin 

14. 


THE    MEXICANS 

learning.  The  Spaniards,  as  conquerors  of 
Mexico,  were  less  kind  to  futurity;  still  cer- 
tain outlines  have  been  pieced  together  from 
picture  writings  and  from  other  evidence  that 
survives. 

While  there  were  tribes  in  various  parts  of 
the  land  that  maintained  independence,  the 
greatness  of  Mexico  as  far  back  as  history 
can  trace  it  centers  in  the  valley  of  Mexico 
round  about  the  present  capital,  high  on  its 
table-land,  yet  encircled  by  mountains  of 
much  greater  height. 

When  we  say  this,  we  are  leaving  aside,  as 
we  must,  the  builders  of  noble  and  awe-inspir- 
ing structures  in  Yucatan  and  elsewhere  be- 
cause they  date  back  farther  than  any  history. 
These  builders  were  great  in  their  forgotten 
day,  but  we  do  not  know  them  and  can  give 
them  no  place.  They  may  have  been  contem- 
poraries of  Solomon  or  even  of  the  Pharaoh 
who  oppressed  the  Israelites  in  Egypt. 

Beginning,  then,  with  what  is  fairly  authen- 
tic, the  Toltecs  had  sway  in  Mexico  from 
about  650  A.D.,  four  hundred  years.  They 
were  the  greatest  builders  of  historic  or  semi- 
historic  times.  The  Chichimecs,  a  ruder  peo- 
ple, succeeded  the  Toltecs,  not  by  conquest 

15 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

but  because  the  Toltecs  had  died  out.  One 
legend  says  that  pulque,  the  intoxicating 
drink  of  the  natives  to  this  day,  was  the  cause. 
However  that  may  be,  the  land  of  the  Toltecs 
was  deserted  until  the  Chichimecs  spread  over 
it  about  1175  A.D.  The  Acolhuas  arrived  a 
few  years  later,  and  still  a  little  later  came  the 
Aztecs  or  Mexicans.  No  one  can  fix  the  exact 
dates,  but  with  a  few  years'  interval  the  three 
nations  appear  to  have  followed  each  other 
in  this  order:  Chichimecs,  Acolhuas,  Aztecs. 
Although  not  wholly  settled  till  later,  all  seem 
to  have  appeared  before  the  year  1200. 

If  the  Chichimecs  were  less  advanced  in 
arts  than  had  been  the  Toltecs,  this  was  not 
equally  true  of  the  Acolhuas,  who  may  have 
been  descended  from  some  kindred  of  the 
Toltecs,  and  with  whom  the  Chichimecs  min- 
gled and  intermarried.  So  progress  was  hin- 
dered less  than  might  have  seemed  likely.  As 
for  the  Aztecs  (or  Mexicans),  they  were  wan- 
derers for  a  long  time  and  held  themselves 
aloof.  They  are  said  to  have  come  from 
the  Californias.  On  the  way  they  built  the 
Casas  Grandes,  of  which  notable  ruins  re- 
main. Then  after  further  wandering  they 
reached  the  present  site  of  Tula,  fifty  miles 

16 


THE    MEXICANS 

north  of  Mexico  City,  where  more  ruins  can 
easily  be  observed.  The  air  is  at  once  clear 
and  marvelously  soft;  and  as  I  remember 
there  are  two  tireless  buzzards  wheeling  far 
above  the  sunlit  crest  of  the  hill.  One  fancies 
that  they  must  have  done  so  always.  The 
Aztecs  remained  here  nine  years.  Finally 
they  came  to  Chapultepec,  "the  hill  of  the 
grasshopper,"  about  1250  A.D.  They  went 
through  one  period  of  enslavement  but  were 
set  free,  so  the  story  goes,  because  their  mas- 
ters, a  tribe  called  the  Colhuas,  were  horrified 
by  their  religious  sacrifices  of  human  beings 
and  the  atrocious  way  in  which  they  carried  on 
war,  even  when  nominally  under  Colhuan 
control. 

The  Aztecs  had  never  been  far  distant  from 
Chapultepec  since  they  first  discovered  it,  and 
near  it  on  an  island  they  now  settled  them- 
selves. It  was  the  year  1325.  The  priests 
who  advised  the  tribe  said  that  they  saw 
there  an  eagle  sitting  on  a  nopal  or  prickly 
pear  and  strangling  a  serpent  in  its  talons. 
This  they  declared  was  a  sign  in  agreement 
with  prophecy,  and  the  place  of  their  abiding 
was  so  fixed.  The  Mexican  coins  of  to-day, 
as  well  as  the  national  flag,  bear  as  insignia 

17 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

the  eagle,  the  serpent,  and  the  nopal  cactus. 
Classic  stories  of  the  founding  of  other  towns 
on  sites  oracularly  pointed  out  may  be  inter- 
esting— the  story  of  Rome  for  example.  The 
Aztecs  confirmed  their  tradition  of  religious 
cruelty  by  a  ceremonial  baptism  of  the  new 
city  in  the  blood  of  prisoners.  Throughout 
their  future  they  continued  such  evil  practices. 
They  showed,  however,  a  genius  for  organiza- 
tion, for  coping  with  natural  difficulties — as 
in  the  construction  of  floating  gardens  before 
they  could  possess  themselves  of  enough  nat- 
ural land — and  for  diplomacy.  By  intermar- 
riage of  their  princes  with  other  royal  families, 
they  at  last  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
entire  region  round  about. 

It  was  an  Aztec  dynasty,  the  dynasty  of 
the  Montezumas,  that  Cortez  found  in  1519, 
or  almost  200  years  after  the  establishment 
of  their  city.  That  horribly  cruel  religious 
rites  and  inhuman  conduct  in  war  were  fa- 
miliar among  them  has  been  made  clear;  but 
it  is  also  certain  that  better  instincts  were 
recognized  among  the  people  under  their  rule. 
Otherwise,  how  would  the  legend  have  been 
preserved  that  the  independent  existence  of 
the  Mexican  tribe  came  from  a  repugnance  of 

18 


THE    MEXICANS 

their  masters  to  their  cruelty  in  religion  and 
war?  Quetzalcoatl,  the  gentle  god  of  peace, 
was  the  titular  deity  of  many  Aztecs  who 
were  opposed  to  the  sway  of  the  more  popular 
god  of  war,  Huitzilopochitli.  Similarly,  it  is 
clear  that  the  government  was  aristocratic,  but 
familiarity  with  another  ideal  appears  from 
the  account  of  how  the  nobles  obtained  their 
power  over  the  people.  In  1425  the  king  and 
his  advisers  wanted  to  make  war  upon  some 
neighbors,  while  the  common  people  opposed 
it,  fearing  that  the  enemy  would  be  too  strong. 
The  curious  compact  was  made  that  war 
should  be  entered  upon  with  vigor,  and  that 
if  it  failed  the  people  might  exact  of  the  nobles 
any  forfeit,  even  their  lives.  If  it  succeeded, 
contrary  to  the  dismal  prophecy  of  the  people, 
then  they  were  to  become  slaves  of  the  nobles. 
The  war  succeeded  and  the  people  were  held 
to  their  unhappy  promise. 

The  form  of  government  among  neighbor- 
ing  tribes  varied.  The  Tlaxcalans,  who  aided 
Cortez  against  the  Mexicans  because  of  an 
old  enmity,  were  democrats,  their  government 
being  a  sort  of  republic.  The  interesting  con- 
sideration here  is  as  to  the  state  in  which  mat- 
ters were  found  by  the  conquerors  from  over 

19 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

the  sea.  Cruelty  in  practice  by  the  rulers  of 
the  principal  nation,  though  mercy  was  recog- 
nized as  an  ideal,  and  tyranny  toward  the 
poor,  though  the  democratic  principle  had 
long  been  familiar,  tell  much  of  the  condition. 
The  Europeans  brought  no  improvement  in 
either  of  these  two  respects.  Another  element 
worthy  of  mention  was  the  strong  religious 
vein,  availed  of  by  the  craft  and  power  of  the 
priests,  as  unscrupulous  as  were  the  Roman 
clergy  a  little  later.  In  short,  conditions  were 
present  to  make  easy  either  the  improvement 
or  the  continued  exploitation  and  degradation 
of  the  people. 

The  Spaniards  came.  Few  chapters  in  the 
story  of  man  surpass  the  record  of  daring, 
energy,  cruelty,  greed,  perfidy,  and  religious 
hypocrisy  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  patriotism, 
heroic  self-devotion,  and  unavailing  courage 
on  the  other,  which  marked  the  conquest.  The 
Mexicans  showed  themselves  not  inferior  to 
the  Spaniards  in  valor,  in  strength,  in  organ- 
ization, or  even  in  military  strategy;  but  they 
had  no  horses,  knew  nothing  of  gunpowder, 
and  were  otherwise  less  effectively  equipped. 
Their  chivalry  was  too  high.  On  one  occa- 
sion they  sent  food  to  the  Spaniards  because 

20 


THE    MEXICANS 

they  disdained  to  fight  a  starving  foe.  Their 
superstition  made  them,  and  particularly 
Montezuma  himself,  very  susceptible  to  the 
deceit  of  the  Spaniards.  Even  with  all  these 
disadvantages,  however,  it  would  have  re- 
quired far  greater  forces  than  Cortez  led  to 
overcome  them  if,  instead  of  having  thousands 
of  native  allies,  he  had  found  all  the  tribes 
united  against  him.  Like  Greece  in  its  fall, 
the  native  people  lost  their  chance  of  per- 
petuity and  continued  development  by  not 
being  able  to  stand  united  against  the  alien 
invader.  Their  downfall  can  scarcely  be  told 
with  more  dramatic  effect  in  romances  like 
Wallace's  "The  Fair  God"  than  it  is  in  a 
supposedly  matter-of-fact  history  like  Pres- 
cott's  "The  Conquest  of  Mexico." 

Though  it  is  not  strange  that  Mexicans 
even  of  Spanish  blood  should  celebrate  the 
independence  of  their  nation,  there  is  some- 
thing a  little  curious  in  the  fact  that,  review- 
ing all  this  early  history,  they  identify  them- 
selves throughout  in  thought  and  sentiment 
with  the  Indians  rather  than  with  the  con- 
quistadores.  The  finest  statue  between  the 
heart  of  the  capital  and  the  castle  of  Chapul- 
tepec,  on  one  of  the  finest  avenues  of  the 
•  21 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

world,  is  a  statue  of  Cuauhtemoc,  the  Aztec 
prince  who  refused  to  tell  the  Spaniards  the 
whereabouts  of  his  nation's  treasure.  A  visit 
to  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  will  fill  the 
stranger  with  admiration  of  the  same  fact. 
Sculpture  and  painting,  poetry  and  the  elo- 
quence of  public  speech,  have  all  been  devoted 
to  magnifying  the  dignity,  the  generosity,  the 
courage  of  the  native  race.  Between  the 
purest  Castilian  and  the  most  thoroughly 
Indian  elements  of  the  people,  Mexican  pa- 
triotism knows  no  division  in  this.  The  con- 
quered, not  the  conquering  heroes,  are  the 
heroes  and  fathers  of  the  nation.  The  ardent 
Mexican  of  any  class  resents  being  taken  for 
a  Spaniard. 


Ill 

GOING 

THERE  are  now  several  ways  of  ap- 
proach to  Mexico;  but  the  historic  way 
is  by  Havana  and  Vera  Cruz.  It  was 
from  the  governor  of  Cuba  that  Cortez  re- 
ceived his  commission  to  go  in  quest  of  gold 
and  adventure  in  1518;  and  while  he  was  not 
the  first  Spaniard  to  visit  the  Mexican  coast, 
nor  Vera  Cruz  the  first  place  that  his  vessels 
touched,  yet  the  successful  invasion  of  the 
country  began  with  his  landing  there  in  the 
spring  of  1519.  It  would  take  a  long  story 
to  tell  of  all  the  invaders  and  adventurers  that 
have  made  Vera  Cruz  their  port  since  his 
time,  despite  the  absence  of  any  protected 
harbor.  This  lack  made  Cortez  destroy  his 
fleet,  and  was  never  remedied  till  about  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.  As  for 
railroads,  even  a  generation  ago  when  the 
building  of  one  from  the  United  States  was 
proposed,  the  rulers  of  Mexico  were  accus- 
tomed to  forbid  it,  saying,  "Between  the 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

strong  and  the  weak  the  desert  is  a  necessity." 
It  was  in  1884  that  railroad  connection  was 
first  established.  The  land  route,  therefore, 
is  not  taken  by  any  one  wishing  to  reconstruct 
the  past;  and  even  for  a  present  sense  of  the 
individuality  of  our  neighbor  nation  we  should 
not  choose  to  step  over  the  imaginary  border 
line  from  a  town  nominally  American  but 
still  in  a  degree  Mexican,  to  a  town  nominally 
Mexican  but  already  a  good  deal  American- 
ized. The  broad  track  of  the  ocean,  not  the 
narrow  glistening  rail,  shall  take  us  to  the 
land  of  our  pilgrimage. 

Leaving  New  York  on  a  sleety  and  cruel 
Thursday  of  December  or  January,  we  slip 
down  the  East  River,  remaining  on  deck, 
whatever  the  cold,  and  letting  the  impression 
of  our  own  perpendicular  metropolis  fix  itself 
as  strongly  as  it  will  on  our  departing  vision. 
So  we  have  said  "good-bye"  to  the  exigent 
Land  of  Now  and  have  determined  the  picture 
that  will  return  to  us  for  contrast  when  we 
look  on  older  cities  in  the  "land  of  manana" 
the  land  of  the  long  yesterday  and  the  un- 
tried to-morrow.  If  we  sight  again  any  shore 
of  the  former  country  it  will  be  as  those  who 
pass  by,  and  with  a  feeling  of  detachment. 


GOING 

We  find  ourselves  aboard  a  steamer  which 
one  member  of  the  company,  much  traveled 
on  trans-Atlantic  Largitanias,  can  scarcely 
regard  without  amusement  at  its  littleness. 
There  is,  however,  a  well-seasoned  old  cap- 
tain, for  this  voyage  a  plain  passenger  like 
the  rest  of  us,  who  says  that  our  supercilious 
friend  will  change  his  estimate  of  the  Morro 
Castle.  The  fastest  vessel  of  the  Ward  Line, 
she  is  admirable  also  for  the  steadiness  of  her 
going  in  all  weathers.  As  for  size,  not  many 
years  ago  there  was  no  craft  afloat  that  could 
belittle  a  ship  of  9,500  tons. 

This  captain,  born  and  grown  in  Ayr,  Scot- 
land, and  as  fond  and  proud  of  Bobbie  Burns 
as  becomes  a  good  Ayrshireman,  is  just  re- 
turning from  a  visit  home  after  several  years' 
work  for  "the  Pearsons"  at  Vera  Cruz  and 
elsewhere.  If  we  don't  know  who  the  Pear- 
sons are,  he  evidently  thinks  that  we  ought  to 
know;  and  doubtless  we  shall  learn  before  we 
have  finished  our  tour.  On  arriving  in  Vera 
Cruz,  if  we  like  he  will  take  us  aboard  one 
of  their  dredging  schooners,  of  which  he  was 
once  in  command.  Now  he  is  to  become  chief 
pilot  of  the  new  port  of  Salina  Cruz,  over 
on  the  Pacific. 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

The  Scottish  captain  is  not  the  only  inter- 
esting passenger.  On  a  ship  bound  for  Liver- 
pool or  Hamburg  one  might  find  the  list 
made  up  of  persons  like  oneself,  bent  on 
merely  "doing"  the  objective  country  or  coun- 
tries and  then  returning  with  the  supposed 
gains  of  the  expedition  all  jumbled  or  nicely 
assorted  in  their  heads.  But  these  people 
bound  for  Mexico  are  to  be  charged  with  no 
such  levity.  They  set  out  with  as  many 
large  and  grave  desires  as  were  ever  regis- 
tered at  Wishing  Gate.  The  young  man  with 
pink  cheeks  and  curly  locks  has  accepted  in 
high  hope  of  advancement  a  position  as  secre- 
tary to  an  American  railway  official;  and  his 
parents,  who  think  that  every  Mexican  car- 
ries two  pistols  and  a  wicked  heart,  bade  him 
a  tremulous  farewell  at  the  wharf.  The  dark, 
resolute-looking,  "tailor-made"  girl  is  a  school 
teacher,  now  to  become  a  missionary,  whose 
parents,  if  she  has  any,  probably  sent  her 
from  them  with  Spartan  or  Puritan  fortitude. 
That  angular  countryman  of  ours  with  the 
long  nose  is  going  to  bring  suit  against  the 
Mexican  Federal  government  for  having  di- 
verted the  natural  water  supply  from  a 
property  in  which  he  is  interested.  He  can 


GOING 

discourse  to  you  roundly  about  the  devious- 
ness  and  perversity  of  the  courts  down  there 
and  of  their  servility  to  the  wishes  of  the 
Executive.  He,  however,  will  bring  pressure 
to  bear  from  without,  if  no  satisfaction  is 
given;  and  he  has  an  English  partner  who 
will  apply  for  redress  also  through  the  British 
representative.  The  very  quiet  man  in  the 
modest  clothes  may  be  a  professional  gambler, 
the  engineer  of  a  mine  three  days'  saddle  ride 
from  any  railroad,  or  a  United  States  secret- 
service  man  appointed  to  find  out  something 
or  other  at  personal  risk.  There  is  a  former 
ship's  doctor  going  to  set  up  practice  in  a 
new  "camp,"  and  an  old  man  making,  for 
him,  a  really  perilous  journey  to  learn  the 
truth  about  a  mine  in  which  his  savings  are 
in\*ested.  The  mine  has  been  paying  since 
the  days  of  Captain  Drake,  who  may  have 
enjoyed  some  indirect  dividends,  but  the  man- 
agement changes  from  time  to  time  and  will 
bear  investigation.  The  brown,  gesticulating 
group  that  you  have  noticed,  who  talk  Spanish 
too  fast  to  be  understood  by  the  Cortina 
method,  are  on  their  way  home  to  Guatemala. 
The  small  but  efficient-looking  young  Mexi- 
can and  his  quite  dazzlingly  beautiful  bride 

27 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

have  spent  two  weeks  of  their  honeymoon  in 
New  York,  where  the  senora,  lately  senorita, 
found  her  greatest  delight  in  the  Hippodrome. 
Do  not  on  that  account  question  her  culture 
or  her  seriousness.  Her  playing  on  the  ship's 
piano  to-night  was  brilliant.  She  can  discuss 
with  meaning  the  literature  of  either  her  own 
language  or  ours.  She  and  her  husband  are 
loyal  but  not  implicit  Catholics,  with  advanced 
political  ideas;  and  they  assured  us  that  while 
they  did  not  favor  revolution  in  1911,  never- 
theless, President  Diaz  being  safely  retired, 
they  and  scores  of  thousands  would  resist  the 
succession  of  any  but  a  progressive  man.  She 
is  interested  in  social  advancement  and  has 
herself  been  a  teacher  of  the  poor  on  her 
father's  plantation.  In  a  little  aside  she  de- 
clared her  conviction  that  Mexican  girls  be- 
come model  wives  in  their  faithfulness  and 
their  devotion  to  all  the  interests  of  their  hus- 
bands, but  generally  the  Mexican  man  is  not 
so  good  a  husband  as  the  American  of  her 
acquaintance.  If  her  own  husband  were  not 
an  exception,  of  course,  as  touching  this  sub- 
ject, she  would  hold  her  finger  upon  her  lips 
forever. 

This  business  of  reviewing  our  fellow-pas- 
28 


GOING 

sengers,  some  consultation  of  Terry's  and 
Campbell's  guide-books,  a  little  study  of 
Spanish,  a  good  deal  of  parading  the  deck, 
and  hours  given  to  the  sights  of  the  sea,  will 
fill  the  next  week  or  more.  We  are  due  to 
arrive  at  Vera  Cruz  on  Friday,  but  Captain 
Ayrshire  says  we  probably  shan't — Sunday 
morning  is  more  likely; — and  so  we  may  as 
well  sink  into  comfortable  acquiescence.  The 
study  of  Spanish,  even,  may  be  dispensed  with 
altogether,  for  the  ship's  stewards  are  all 
Americans  or  Britons  and  \ve  are  advised  one 
can  make  one's  way  anywhere  in  Mexico  now 
by  the  aid  of  English  alone,  so  general  has  its 
use  become.  This  is  demonstrated  by  many 
tourists  every  year.  Yet  by  the  aid  of  from 
fifty  to  two  hundred  Spanish  words  and  a 
little  knowledge  of  the  grammar,  one  can 
travel  with  added  pleasure  and  satisfaction. 
Often  a  clerk  or  waiter  who  is  advertised  to 
speak  English  will  understand  better  even  the 
most  limited  and  halting  Spanish.  The  Mexi- 
can people  everywhere  appreciate  any  evi- 
dence that  a  stranger  has  taken  pains  to  learn 
a  little  of  their  idioma,  which  is  probably  of 
all  languages  the  easiest,  as  it  is  certainly  one 
of  the  most  rewarding  of  casual  study. 

29 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

The  first  event  will  be  the  sight,  early  Sun- 
day morning,  of  palms  above  an  amber  beach 
that  some  one  says  is  Florida.  We  think  we 
have  heard  the  name  in  connection  with  the 
doings  of  one  De  Leon.  As  for  our  much- 
traveled  friend,  he  has  heard  that  there  is 
wireless  connection  along  the  coast  and  goes 
to  ask  if  the  Aerogram  for  the  day  is  issued 
yet.  He  is  interested,  not  in  the  Fountain  of 
Youth  nor  in  a  mythical  El  Dorado,  but  in 
the  success  of  the  orange  crop.  All  day  Sun- 
day this  low  land  and  the  flotilla  of  keys  that 
trail  away  to  the  southward  will  be  visible,  the 
canvas  of  many  sailing  vessels  contrasting 
prettily  with  the  green  of  the  islands.  When 
the  sun  goes  down  among  them,  imagination 
may  flash  forward  at  once  to  New  Old  Spain, 
in  its  larger  conception;  for  on  the  morrow 
we  shall  find  ourselves,  not  in  Mexico  to  be 
sure,  but  in  Cuba. 

At  daybreak  Monday  morning  on  the  first 
voyage  that  I  took  we  were  called  and  told 
that  Morro  Castle  was  in  sight.  The  name 
filled  us  with  a  not  unpleasant  excitement 
then,  for  the  incidents  of  the  American  war 
with  Spain  had  not  yet  passed  from  tense 
actuality  into  the  calm  atmosphere  of  things 

80 


GOING 

historic.  We  were  entering  the  tragical  pres- 
ence of  the  battleship  Maine,  through  a  por- 
tentous gateway,  on  our  way  to  a  foreign,  ro- 
mantic, and  more  or  less  enchanted  city.  It 
was  a  great  moment.  There,  sure  enough, 
was  the  castle  at  the  left,  there  were  the  an- 
swering batteries  on  the  other  side,  and  there 
were  we,  breathlessly  stealing  in  between  the 
two  terrors.  This  feeling  gave  way  almost 
instantly  to  another,  an  appreciation  of 
beauty  that  can  no  more  be  described  than  it 
can  be  forgotten.  With  its  tower  lamp  held 
up  like  a  yellow  blossom  against  the  flush  of 
dawn,  the  castle,  for  all  its  bulk,  has  no  frown- 
ing reality.  Its  lines  and  those  of  the  ram- 
part farther  in  must  have  been  hard  enough 
once;  but  the  mellow  hue  of  decay,  the  half- 
concealment  of  venerable  trees,  and  other 
quieting  touches  have  at  last  subdued  it  all  to 
a  picture  of  loveliness.  Beyond  spreads  the 
wide  harbor,  and  along  it  the  low-built  town 
of  many  colors,  all  harmonious  in  the  dim 
light,  its  sky  line  varied  by  many  palm  trees 
and  here  and  there  by  church  towers  that  could 
not  belong  in  any  Anglo-Saxon  country. 

The  flag  of  the  United  States  was  floating 
over  the  castle  just  then,  and  our  ship  cast 

31 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

anchor  near  the  wreck  of  the  Maine.  I  hired 
a  russet-colored  man  with  a  heavy  boat  and 
a  tattered  red  sail,  bare  feet,  and  a  yellow 
cigarette  to  take  me  around  the  wreck.  We 
went  ashore  and  visited  among  other  things 
the  old  Cathedral,  where  the  sexton  assured  us 
of  as  much  history  as  he  could  by  declaring 
several  times  with  a  good  deal  of  emphasis, 
"Columbus — ashes!  Ashes — Columbus!"  We 
understood  this  kind  of  Spanish  very  well, 
as  far  as  it  went,  and  our  guide-books  re- 
minded us  how  Columbus  was  first  buried  ac- 
cording to  his  own  wish  on  the  island  of  Santo 
Domingo;  how,  later,  in  1795,  when  the 
French  took  the  island,  certain  bones  purport- 
ing to  be  his  were  brought  from  there  to 
Havana,  and  how,  in  1898,  when  in  turn  Cuba 
was  lost  to  the  Spaniards,  they  took  the  relics 
away  with  them  to  Seville. 

In  this  city  of  400,000  inhabitants  we  began 
to  appreciate  a  few  of  the  facts,  to  see  char- 
acteristic pictures,  and  to  feel  the  proverbial 
spell  of  Latin  America.  The  republics  to 
southward  of  us  have  two  of  the  five  largest 
cities  on  the  western  continent,  and  may  boast 
a  half  dozen  cities  all  larger  than  Havana, 
which,  however,  surpasses  Antwerp,  Dublin, 

32 


GOING 

or  Hong  Kong.  In  any  of  them  Anachro- 
nism, a  figure  that  walks  openly  enough  in 
every  modern  town,  would  be  as  plain  to 
northern  eyes  as  here,  and  show  as  pleasing 
guises. 

Cuba  should  have  only  passing  mention  on 
our  way.  We  were  aboard  again  before  sun- 
down. The  view  of  Havana  from  an  out- 
bound ship  at  nightfall  is  most  beautiful. 
There  is  no  bewilderment  of  lights  as  in  New 
York,  but  a  thin  line  of  sparks  like  a  string 
of  gems  dangles  along  the  shore  for  miles,  a 
suffused  glow  reveals  the  outlines  of  things 
even  more  romantically  than  they  appeared  in 
the  morning;  and  the  personality  that  one 
ascribes  to  every  harbor  city  appears  at  Ha- 
vana to  be  one  of  tenderness,  as  thus  seen  and 
left. 

Sea  life  is  more  abundant  and  varied  in  the 
Gulf  than  in  the  Atlantic.  Flying  fishes,  like 
little  creatures  of  silver,  are  passed  frequently, 
and  from  time  to  time  a  school  of  porpoises, 
bent  on  making  their  way  across  the  path 
of  the  ship,  recall  the  antics  of  sheep  bolting 
through  a  gateway.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
heavy  grace,  and  the  porpoise  at  play  em- 
bodies it. 

33 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Three  days  from  our  arrival  at  Havana,  or 
two  days  and  an  added  night  of  actual  sailing, 
bring  us  to  the  west  coast  of  Yucatan.  This 
time  there  is  no  gateway  with  ancient  castles 
for  newel  posts,  no  enclosed  harbor  with  space 
for  a  thousand  ships,  no  domes  and  towers  to 
enhance  the  sky  line,  no  murmurs  of  an  in- 
dolent city's  awakening.  There  is  nothing  but 
the  word  of  the  officers  to  tell  you  that  you 
are  riding  opposite  Progreso,  the  port  of 
Merida,  which  is  the  capital  of  Yucatan  and 
has  more  per  capita  wealth  than  any  other  city 
in  Mexico.  No  place  could  be  more  devoid 
of  shelter ;  and  while  Progreso  is  an  important 
discharging  point,  the  estimates  of  cost  for  an 
artificial  harbor  have  always  in  the  past  been 
such  as  to  discourage  the  undertaking.  A 
plan  now  under  consideration  is  expected  to 
cost  over  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  If  you 
inquire,  you  will  be  told  that  there  is  no  better 
place  along  the  whole  Yucatan  coast.  "We 
used  to  stop  at  Campeche,"  says  the  quarter- 
master, "and  that's  over  a  hundred  miles  far- 
ther south.  It  looked  as  bad  and  was  in  fact 
worse.  When  off  Campeche  you  saw  nothing 
but  water  and  sky,  with  a  little  rim  of  sand 
between.  Yucatan  has  no  harbors." 

34 


GOING 

But  we  have  not  begun  to  make  acquaint- 
ance with  Progreso.  The  delay  must  be  par- 
doned as  it  is  unavoidable. 

The  authorities  forbid  the  landing  of  a  per- 
son or  a  pound  till  the  medical  officer  of  the 
port  has  honored  us  with  a  visit  and  inspec- 
tion. In  this  they  follow  the  American  ex- 
ample. The  Senor  Doctor,  however,  has  too 
much  dignity,  too  much  appreciation  of  com- 
fort, too  much  regard  for  social  amenities 
among  his  friends,  to  follow  the  abrupt,  mat- 
ter-of-fact business  ways  of  his  American 
counterpart.  If  the  breeze  is  too  stiff  or  if 
the  clouds  seem  to  threaten,  if  there  is  a  bull- 
fight or  a  wedding  afoot,  or  if  he  is  engaged 
in  a  friendly  game  of  cards,  clearly  it  would 
be  inconvenient  for  him  to  come  out.  On  one 
visit  of  mine  the  twelve-hour  stop  of  the 
steamer  was  lengthened  to  forty-eight,  and  on 
another  to  sixty-five.  We  may  as  well  gen- 
eralize, therefore,  about  the  configuration 
along  the  peninsula,  about  the  habits  of  cer- 
tain public  functionaries,  about  human  prog- 
ress toward  the  millennium  or  toward  the 
vanishing  point.  For  it  is  impossible,  even 
on  ship-board,  to  talk  all  the  time  about  one's 
meals. 

35 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

When  all  else  fails  we  can  look  overboard 
at  the  sharks.  This  has  a  fascination,  un- 
canny enough  in  daytime,  but  of  multiplied 
power  and  hatefulness  at  night,  for  often 
there  are  lamps  by  which  the  ghastly  and 
noiseless  forms  can  be  discerned.  Yes,  they 
will  come  up  in  plain  sight  enough,  and  not 
by  ones  and  twos  but  by  the  half-dozen.  To 
be  sure,  they  cannot,  however  they  try,  pro- 
duce quite  the  applique  effect  seen  in  Wins- 
low  Homer's  painting  of  the  "Gulf  Stream." 
They  must  remain  suspended  in  and  some- 
what identified  with  the  medium  that  they 
infest;  and  there  is  a  certain  unreality  about 
one  of  them,  however  obvious  he  makes  him- 
self. Is  it  not  so  with  all  creatures  of  prey — 
the  tiger,  the  owl,  or  the  pirate  ship,  if  you 
ever  observed  any  of  them  in  their  haunts? 
You  are  not  so  sure  of  them  as  of  a  cow, 
or  a  lumber  barge.  Still,  the  sharks  at  Pro- 
greso  will  do  all  that  you  have  any  right  to 
expect  in  the  interest  of  verification  and 
definiteness.  They  are  so  tame,  the  officers 
of  the  Ward  Line  have  been  quoted  as  saying, 
that  they  "will  eat  from  a  person's  hand — or 
leg."  They  will  take  a  hook  if  you  bait  it 
with  a  chunk  of  fish  or  odorous  meat  as  large 

36 


GOING 

as  a  ham,  and  you  can  try  the  muscular  sense 
upon  them.  When  you  have  brought  one  up 
to  the  surface,  with  the  help  of  fellow-pas- 
sengers, and  have  lost  your  only  hook,  the 
mate  will  assure  you  that  they  are  much  easier 
to  "drown"  than  a  bass  if  you  work  them 
rightly,  and  that  the  only  way  to  land  one 
is  with  a  runnin'  bowlin'  around  his  tail. 

Nights  at  Progreso  are  lonely  to  a  stranger 
on  deck.  Perhaps  there  is  no  doctor  whose 
business  it  is  to  come  out  and  examine  us.  Per- 
haps there  isn't  any  town,  though  there  are  a 
few  lights  over  there  to  the  eastward  that  look 
human  and  wistful.  Everything  ashore,  for 
aught  that  we  can  tell,  may  be  as  when  Fran- 
cisco Cordoba  skirted  this  coast  in  1517. 
Nothing  is  very  certain.  One  passenger  who 
had  spent  two  days  and  nights  thus  with  the 
sharks  and  the  gulls,  the  water  and  the  sky, 
the  warm,  unctuous  air,  the  distant  lights,  and 
the  solitude  put  his  mood  into  rather  senti- 
mental verse: 

What  meaning  have  the  terms  of  space — 
What  is  it  to  be  near,  or  far? 
I  have  not  altered,  though  apace 
Removed,  nor  felt  that  your  loved  face 
Would  alter,  or  the  inward  grace 
That  makes  you  what  you  are. 

37 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

And  what  reality  has  time? 

Is  this  not  hard  to  understand — 

Half  miserable,  half  sublime, — 

That  now  my  thoughts  with  yours  may  chime 

And  still  for  lagging  Fortune's  prime 

I  wait,  to  grasp  your  hand? 

I  do  not  know,  but  while  to-night, 
In  low,  companionable  tone, 
The  waves  console  each  other — bright 
The  long  familiar  stars,  and  sight 
Peers  home  to  every  landward  light, — 
I  know  I  am  alone ! 

At  times  the  port  is  far  from  lonesome,  and 
humor  is  more  natural  than  melancholy.  I 
saw  a  half  dozen  American  and  European 
vessels  there  at  one  time,  some  having  waited 
three  days  already  for  the  perfunctory  atten- 
tion of  the  port  officers.  It  is  diverting  to 
imagine  the  inside  appearance  of  a  man's 
mind  who  can  thus  make  large  numbers  of 
persons  and  great  values  in  property  wait  for 
release  upon  his  petty  convenience  and  then 
can  show  himself  complacent  and  polite  as  if 
nothing  incongruous  had  happened.  Cer- 
tainly he  has  not  a  Yankee  sense  of  the  ab- 
surd. "And  so  that  is  the  Mexican  way,  is 
it!"  you  exclaim.  Well,  it  is  a  familiar  way 
among  certain  grades  of  officials. 

38 


GOING 

Once  the  embargo  is  removed,  there  will 
be  doings  about  the  ship  almost  interesting 
enough  to  make  one  stay  aboard.  Cattle  will 
be  lifted  either  by  the  horns  or  in  slings  out 
of  the  hold  and  dropped  into  the  "lighters" 
that  have  come  alongside.  A  great  many 
American  cattle  of  good  breeds  go  to  Yuca- 
tan, you  are  told.  If  you  have  been  studying 
Spanish  you  will  enjoy  the  admonition  ffPoco 
a  poco!"  ("Little  by  little")  as  pianos  are 
deposited  bottom-side  up  in  another  lighter. 
You  may  see  currants  from  Italy,  butter  from 
Denmark,  and  corn  from  the  United  States,  if 
it  so  happens.  You  will  learn  that  Yucatan 
imports  nearly  everything  and  exports  chiefly 
one  thing,  henequin,  which  is  the  fiber  of  a 
kind  of  century  plant  used  to  make  binding 
twine  for  reapers,  coarse  inferior  rope,  and 
cheap  brushes.  You  wonder  that  the  rest  of 
the  world  can  afford  to  send  to  Yucatan  the 
means  of  subsistence  in  exchange  for  such  a 
commodity;  and  you  are  told  that  in  fact  a 
mere  subsistence  is  a  small  part  of  what  the 
rest  of  the  world  has  accorded  most  owners 
of  henequin  plantations.  As  for  the  workers 
in  it,  they  must  be  considered  separately. 

One  puzzling  thing  is  the  incredible  activity 
39 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  the  barefoot  workers  in  these  native  barges. 
You  are  told  that  they  receive,  too,  an  almost 
incredible  stipend,  for  Mexico,  a  dollar  and 
a  half  per  day.  They  earn  whatever  they  are 
paid.  Only  monkeys  or  squirrels  are  expected 
to  be  so  nimble,  only  horses  to  be  so  strenu- 
ous and  unstinting  of  energy.  They  do  not 
illustrate  your  general  idea  of  Mexican  lassi- 
tude. You  make  note  of  them,  but  as  yet 
they  remain  unclassified. 


IV 

HENEQUIN 

BY  the  time  the  ship's  tender  is  ready  to 
leave,  you  have  decided  that  after  all 
you  had  better  go  ashore.     You  have 
already  seen  enough  of  the  "lightering"  pro- 
cess to  give  you  a  notion  of  the  rest. 

Progreso,  you  discover,  isn't  anything  but  a 
good  lighthouse  and  a  port  without  a  harbor, 
which  stands  second  to  Vera  Cruz  in  the  re- 
public for  quantity  of  imports  received.  If 
the  government  builds  the  proposed  jetties, 
their  necessary  length  will  be  four  or  five 
miles.  As  for  the  town,  it  is  credited  with 
5000  inhabitants  whose  dwellings  straggle  a 
considerable  distance  along  the  beach.  It  has 
a  park,  a  church  that  cost  more  money  to 
build  than  a  town  of  like  size  would  afford  at 
home,  a  bull-ring,  a  market  that  will  offer  a 
great  variety  of  sensations  to  eye  and  ear 
without  undue  offense  to  the  nostrils,  and  a 
railway  station  by  which  one  may  leave  for 
Merida. 

41 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

It  is  a  low,  flat  country,  with  little  vegeta- 
tion except  scrub  trees  and  presently  the 
henequin,  which  you  easily  distinguish  because 
of  its  arrangement  in  straight  rows.  The 
plants,  if  allowed  to  grow  haphazard,  would 
arouse  no  suspicion  of  their  being  worth  any- 
thing, gray-green,  juiceless-looking,  sword- 
shaped  leaves  radiating  from  a  gnarled  stalk, 
and  growing  out  of  a  dry,  dust-and-ashes- 
looking  soil,  if  indeed  they  do  not  grow  out 
of  the  limestone  itself.  Standing  valiantly  in 
their  rows,  however,  they  command  instant 
respect,  and  knowing  that  they  extract  an- 
nually twenty  million  dollars'  worth  of  value 
(American  money)  from  the  unfertile  soil  of 
the  peninsula,  you  can  easily  view  them  as 
typifying  man's  subjugation  of  the  world. 
The  poorer  the  soil  for  any  other  crop,  the 
more  sturdily  henequin  is  said  to  grow  upon 
it,  and  the  larger  the  quantity  of  growth,  the 
better  also  the  quality  of  fiber. 

At  intervals  you  will  see  a  little  hamlet  or 
the  buildings  of  a  plantation  with  its  wind- 
mills. A  clump  of  palms  marks  the  location 
of  a  well.  Water  of  excellent  quality  is  said 
to  abound  in  Yucatan,  but  it  is  all  under- 
ground water,  which  must  be  drilled  for  and 


HENEQUIN 

pumped.  The  soil  for  gardens  and  most  field 
crops  has  also  to  be  brought  artificially,  the 
rocks  being  first  broken  by  blasting.  So  you 
no  longer  wonder  at  the  variety  of  imports 
that  you  saw  coming  ashore  from  your  own 
and  other  vessels,  though  you  had  supposed 
perhaps  that  corn  would  come  more  cheaply 
from  some  parts  of  Mexico.  Surely  in  parts 
of  the  country,  being  the  staple  food  of  the 
poor,  it  must  be  cheaper  than  in  Nebraska. 
So  indeed  it  is  in  parts,  and  at  times;  but 
you  are  told  that  crops  have  been  bad  for 
two  or  three  years  and  transportation  and 
other  facilities  being  as  they  are  and  the  de- 
mand in  each  Mexican  state  so  nearly  equal- 
ing the  production,  American  corn  is  to  be 
had  at  less  cost.  This  does  not  wholly  dis- 
miss the  subject  from  your  mind.  Butter 
from  Kansas  or  from  Denmark  at  a  peso  a 
pound  does  not  stagger  you,  nor  currants  at 
any  price,  because,  as  Mark  Twain  declared 
about  principles,  one  can  do  without  them; 
but  that  the  poor,  who  must  have  their  corn, 
should  be  buying  it  from  the  United  States 
disturbs  our  feeling  that  the  low  compensa- 
tion of  labor  is  doubtless  adjusted  somehow 
to  low  costs  in  a  bountiful  land. 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

From  the  car  windows  you  catch  glimpses 
of  the  poor  natives  and  reflect  that  they  have 
at  least  one  economic  advantage,  that  of  need- 
ing few  clothes.  At  the  same  time  you  will 
become  aware  of  a  merit  in  them — such  gar- 
ments as  they  wear  are  astonishingly  clean. 
This  is  not  .a  condescending  remark  that  on 
the  whole,  considering  poverty  and  ignorance, 
they  do  very  well;  it  goes  farther  than  that. 
For  in  fact  it  is  hard  to  conceive  how  people 
can  trudge  up  and  down  the  dusty  roads  bear- 
ing their  burdens,  in  and  out  through  the 
dusty  fields  at  their  toil,  and  keep  their  white 
clothing  so  spotless  as  these  people  do.  It 
makes  one  lift  up  one's  head  in  pride.  If  the 
evolution  theory  is  a  correct  guess,  to  be  a 
human  being  is  after  all  a  great  thing  and 
must  signify  a  long  upward  process.  The 
Mayas,  who  are  the  native  race  of  Yucatan, 
did  not  learn  from  the  Spaniards  to  weave 
their  cloth,  nor  to  cut  and  drape  it  in  simple 
grace,  nor  to  color  in  native  dyes  their  threads 
with  which  to  embroider  it.  As  for  keeping  it 
clean,  if  you  study  that  habit  among  them  you 
will  conclude  that  it  also  must  have  been  a  long 
time  fixed. 

Another  comforting  observation  is  that, 
44 


HENEQUIN 

whatever  the  wage  scale,  or  the  submergence 
below  any  such,  whatever  the  cost  of  living, 
the  seeming  scantiness  of  fare,  or  the  rate  of 
mortality,  these  are  not  an  emaciated  people. 
Their  well-rounded  limbs,  flat  backs  and  full 
chests,  well-poised  heads  and  full  contour  of 
face  do  not  tell  of  starvation.  It  must  be  that 
to  some  conditions  for  which  writers  have 
pitied  them,  they  are  adapted  by  immemorial 
breeding.  You  will  find  this  same  observa- 
tion holds  in  other  parts  of  the  republic  (we 
call  it  so  for  convenience) ;  and  you  had  bet- 
ter draw  all  proper  comfort  from  it,  as  some 
of  the  standard  tests  of  well-being  will  show 
badly  enough  when  you  come  to  apply  them. 

While  the  train  speeds  along  its  level  and 
easy  way,  you  speculate  further  about  these 
golden-bronze  men  and  women  with  their  glis- 
tening white  garments  and  their  statuesque 
figures.  Is  it  not  an  Oriental  fact  about  them 
that  they  can  be  well  fed  upon  almost  nothing, 
and  are  they  not  Oriental  in  the  calm  continu- 
ance of  their  own  ways  of  dress  and  their  own 
style  of  habitation?  For  even  the  wretchedly 
poor  do  give  some  hints  of  what  architecture 
they  approve.  Here  are  questions  that  the 
learned  have,  perhaps,  not  considered  specifi- 

45 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

cally,   though  the  larger  general   one  as  to 
origins  has  been  often  before  them. 

Recurring  to  cleanliness,  you  ask  whether 
all  Mexican  laborers  are  like  these.  Your  more 
way-wise  companion  will  counsel  you  not  to 
press  that  query  but  only  to  mark  these  that 
you  have  seen  in  your  note-book. 

Whoever  these  people  are,  you  will  remem- 
ber them  with  gratitude  for  having  made 
spots  so  vivid  in  a  barren  landscape. 

We  are  traveling  now  under  an  arrange- 
ment with  the  Yucatan  Tours  Bureau,  so  cabs 
will  await  us  on  our  arrival  in  Merida.  It 
has  a  population  above  40,000  and  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  cleanest  city  of  all  Mexico. 
Its  well-washed  asphalt  pavements,  the  order- 
liness of  the  business  streets,  and  the  look  of 
freshness  about  the  buildings  in  general  jus- 
tify this  title. 

You  will  be  sure  to  notice  the  beauty  of 
some  of  the  gardens,  and  will  be  told  not  only 
that  every  tree  and  shrub  had  to  be  planted, 
but  that  the  very  soil  in  which  they  grow  had 
to  be  transported  and  paid  for  by  the  cubic 
meter.  The  vegetable  gardens  of  the  city  are 
grown  by  Chinese,  who  gather  up  every  scrap 
of  refuse  capable  of  being  used  as  fertilizer. 

46 


HENEQUIN 

In  the  way  of  sights  you  will  be  taken  to 
a  half-million-dollar  theater,  to  a  cathedral 
finished  in  1598  at  a  cost  of  $150,000, 
to  the  house  of  Monte  jo,  built  by  a  Span- 
ish worthy  of  that  name  in  1549,  or  only  a 
little  over  half  a  century  after  the  first  voy- 
age of  Columbus.  You  will  be  taken  also  to 
the  Government  Palace  and  will  note  that  it 
is  a  substantial  structure,  but  will  not  care  for 
details.  Very  soon  one  learns  in  Mexico  that 
the  things  to  see  are  not  "the  sights."  The 
picture  of  the  city  in  general,  with  its 
many  gesticulating  windmills,  the  occasional 
glimpses  of  beautiful  courts  within  the  solid 
old  dwellings,  the  unexpected  presence  of  a 
few  houses  that  would  not  be  amiss  in  Balti- 
more, the  panorama  of  strangely  varied  life — 
this  is  what  feeds  the  imagination  more  than 
concrete  and  particular  show  objects.  Cosmo- 
politan-looking Mexicans  and  cosmopolitan- 
looking  strangers  mingle  with  the  most  out- 
landish-looking foreigners  and  the  most  char- 
acteristically garbed  of  Mexicans — the  women 
with  their  idealizing  mantillas  and  the  men 
with  their  abnormally  big  sombreros  balanced 
above  abnormally  slim  legs.  Here,  too,  come 
the  Mayas  in  their  cotton  with  colored  bor- 

47 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

ders,  their  quiet  self-possession,  and  their  Ori- 
ental reserve.  Mexicans  will  tell  you  that 
Yucatan  is  very  clannish  and  express  a  hope 
that  this  aloofness  may  be  overcome  a  little  by 
such  compliments  as  the  one  paid  them  by  the 
election  of  a  Yucatecan,  Senor  Pino  Suarez, 
to  be  Madero's  Vice-President.  Of  course 
you  politely  hope  so  too,  but  it  does  not  sur- 
prise you  to  hear  that  the  people  here  are 
peculiar  and  separate. 

If  you  can  you  will  visit  the  museum,  and 
will  regret  that  you  have  not  a  day  for  the 
statuary  and  other  Maya  curios  here  pre- 
served. You  will  be  certain  later,  however, 
to  visit  the  National  Museum  at  the  capital, 
where  a  mere  tourist  can  do  more  in  a  given 
length  of  time. 

If  you  are  to  continue  with  the  same  ves- 
sel, you  will  see  nothing  of  the  world-famous 
ruins  of  Yucatan,  those  gigantic  and  ponder- 
ous as  well  as  beautiful  relics  of  a  people 
whose  forefathers,  as  some  scholars  believe, 
may  have  been  the  earliest  of  human  kind. 
Again,  if  you  must,  you  will  console  yourself 
in  your  purpose  to  see  other  ruins,  not  like 
these  and  not  so  old,  it  may  be,  but  of  such 
character  and  such  antiquity  as  to  fill  us  with 

48 


HENEQUIN 

the  same  awe  of  the  greatness  of  the  past  in 
our  western  hemisphere.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  can  spare  a  week  till  the  next 
steamer,  as  I  never  could,  you  may 
easily  spend  a  day  or  two  on  a  hene- 
quin  plantation,  and  visit  the  most  ac- 
cessible Yucatan  ruins,  those  of  Uxmal.  The 
ruins  cover  square  miles  of  area  and  consti- 
tute only  one  of  many  groups  in  Yucatan. 
They  do  not  need  to  be  reconstructed  by  the 
imagination  and  the  patience  of  the  archae- 
ologist; they  stand  clear  and  real  for  the  eye 
and  the  camera  of  whoever  seeks  them  out, 
not  only  in  the  solidity  of  their  age-old  walls 
but  in  the  loveliness,  astonishing  variety,  and 
unexplainable  subject-matter  of  their  decora- 
tions. Elephants,  leopards,  and  other  animals 
not  associated  in  our  minds  with  any 
American  civilization  are  plainly  repre- 
sented. How  old  are  they?  How  old 
is  Egypt?  There  are  serious  and  pains- 
taking scholars  who  believe  that  the  wondrous 
builders  of  these  colossal  and  rich  palaces, 
temples,  and  tombs  were  as  early  in  their 
progress  as  the  builders  and  sculptors  of  the 
Nile  valley.  They  are  old.  But  you  do  not 
wish  to  tarry  with  one  who  knows  them  only 

49 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

from  having  gone  over  books  and  printed 
views  in  delight  and  amazement.  John  L. 
Stephens  has  written  about  them,  and  there 
are  later  supplemental  writings. 

So  it  is  recent  history  to  recall  that  Span- 
iards caught  sight  of  the  peninsula  in  1506  or 
that  they  landed  upon  it  in  1518,  or  that  they 
made  their  first  settlement  in  1528.  The  voy- 
ages of  Columbus  himself  were  but  a  little 
while  ago. 

It  will  not  take  much  travel  to  suggest,  and 
any  added  travel  will  only  confirm  the  impres- 
sion, that  Yucatan  is  somehow  related  to 
Florida,  though  geologists  doubt  or  deny  it. 
The  train  ride  from  Progreso  to  Merida  across 
the  low  land  with  its  scrubby  growth  and  its 
many  pools  and  marshes  would  have  called  up 
remembrances  of  certain  Florida  scenery  even 
if  one  had  not  just  sailed  along  the  keys  that 
are  like  the  dotted  line  between  two  heavy 
pen  strokes.  Yucatan  is  not  to  be  thought  of 
as  coming  under  our  first  general  description 
of  Mexico  at  all,  for  it  compares  with  the 
main  land  as  Florida  compares  with  the  Rocky 
Mountain  country. 

There  is  likely  to  be  less  haste  in  getting 
back  to  the  steamer  than  there  was  to  catch 

50 


HENEQUIN 

the  morning  train.  In  Progreso  a  visit  can 
be  made  to  one  of  the  great  sisal  (henequin) 
warehouses  and  time  can  be  taken  to  notice 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  material  ranged 
in  great  400-pound  bales  upon  the  wharves. 
Here,  as  on  the  plantations,  little  mules  pro- 
pel the  flat  cars  that  convey  it  along  narrow- 
gauge  tramways ;  and  the  bales  mass  up  as  do 
cotton-bales  on  the  wharves  at  New  Orleans, 
by  the  thousand. 

No  one  who  has  been  reading  about  Mex- 
ico can  leave  Merida  and  Progreso  without 
asking  as  to  the  status  of  the  people  who  do 
the  work  on  the  plantations.  On  my  last  trip 
I  devoted  a  large  part  of  my  time  to  just  this 
inquiry.  The  revolution  was  not  yet  accom- 
plished and  President  Diaz  was  still  in  nom- 
inal control. 

Are  Yaquis  deported  here  from  far-away 
Sonora?  Yes,  certainly,  as  a  war  measure. 

Are  they  ill  treated?  They  are  accorded 
the  same  treatment  that  the  native  Mayas  re- 
ceive. There  is  no  occasion  to  treat  them  with 
special  severity  since  they  are  as  industrious, 
peaceable,  and  dependable  as  any  workers  in 
the  republic.  After  all,  however,  they  are 
somewhat  undesirable  in  one  respect,  that  they 

51 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

die  very  rapidly  when  brought  to  this  climate 
so  different  from  their  own. 

What  is  implied  by  saying  that  they  are 
treated  like  the  Maya  laborers?  Are  they 
slaves?  No  one  uses  the  word  slave  in  Mex- 
ico. The  laws  and  the  Constitution  forbid 
slavery.  The  people  are  held  without  sanc- 
tion of  law,  but  with  the  connivance  of  the 
government  in  a  feudal  bondage  to  the  land. 
The  owner  of  the  land  exercises  a  power 
whose  limits  are  seldom  discussed,  and  the 
people  look  to  him  for  whatever  protection, 
guidance,  and  means  of  subsistence  they  are 
to  have. 

Can  they  leave  at  will?  Not  if  they  are  in 
debt,  as  is  usually  the  case.  A  shrewd  em- 
ployer, even  though  a  kindly  one,  will  usually 
find  opportunity  to  bring  that  about — trans- 
portation if  they  come  to  him  from  a  distance, 
marriage  fees,  baptism  fees,  or  what  not,  ren- 
der most  of  them  willing  borrowers.  To  Mexi- 
cans just  a  degree  more  intelligent,  of  course 
debt  is  a  mortal  terror. 

Can  they  be  transferred  at  the  will  of  the 
owner?  He  can  transfer  his  debt-claim,  yes. 
But  he  seldom  wishes  to,  except  when  he  sells 
the  land,  as  labor  is  scarce. 

52 


HENEQUIN 

Are  the  slaves — that  is  the  workers — ever 
beaten,  or  otherwise  maltreated?  Doubtless, 
sometimes,  but  sensational  books  exaggerate. 
A  great  many  owners  are  kind  to  their  work 
people.  Some  make  great  personal  effort  and 
sacrifice  for  their  welfare,  and  feel  it  a  serious 
responsibility.  Food,  housing,  personal  treat- 
ment, and  exactions  of  labor  vary,  of  course, 
with  different  owners. 

Still,  if  there  should  be  here  and  there  a 
cruel  owner  or  overseer,  the  laborers  are  at 
his  mercy,  are  they  not?  What  redress  have 
they?  Well,  there  are  shyster  lawyers  who 
will  take  the  case  of  such  laborers,  but  often 
the  workers  find  the  attempt  difficult  and 
dangerous.  The  fact  is  the  authorities  have 
favored  a  pretty  tight  hold  on  the  only  kind 
of  labor  that  seems  possible  here;  and  that 
means  a  pretty  strong  exercise  of  control  by 
the  owners. 

If  a  man  owes  fifty  dollars  which  I  am  will- 
ing to  pay  in  order  to  secure  his  service,  can 
he  go  away  with  me  of  his  own  choice?  You 
would  have  to  get  his  employer  to  go  before 
a  judge  and  sign  a  release,  indicating  that  all 
the  man's  debt  is  discharged  by  your  payment 
of  fifty  dollars. 

53 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Then  the  fact  is  that  by  my  help  the  man 
may  with  difficulty  free  himself,  and  without 
help  he  would  certainly  be  unable,  unless  his 
employer  saw  fit  to  release  him?  That  is  one 
way  of  putting  it,  yes. 

And  what  excuse  is  there,  in  a  country  with 
a  modern  Constitution  and  with  enlightened 
laws  on  its  statute  books,  for  maintaining  such 
a  system?  The  excuse  of  business  necessity. 
These  people  would  not  do  the  needed  work 
on  a  voluntary  basis;  and  the  labor  problem 
could  not  be  met  at  all.  The  system  is  not  de- 
fensible by  argument,  it  is  not  what  it  ought 
to  be,  but  to  change  it  seems  impossible.  We 
believe  these  natives  are  generally  and  for  the 
most  part  better  off  with  some  one  both  to 
command  them  and  to  provide  for  them.  Left 
to  themselves  they  are  both  improvident  and 
lazy.  Many  Mexican  laborers  cannot  be  hired 
to  work  voluntarily  more  than  two  or  three 
days  a  week. 

The  above,  though  a  composite  of  several 
interviews  with  men  in  official  authority,  in 
business  relations,  or  otherwise  well  qualified 
to  know,  represents  the  unanimous  and,  ex- 
cept in  details,  the  unvarying  replies  that 
were  given  me  on  the  points  raised.  I  talked 

54 


HENEQUIN 

with  no  one  of  radical  sympathies.  It  is  only 
as  to  frequency  or  infrequency  of  gross  abuse 
that  difference  of  opinion  exists.  %And  with- 
out having  spent  a  good  deal  of  actual  time 
among  the  plantations,  one's  opinion  on  this 
must  be  taken  either  from  such  testimony  as 
one  can  gather,  or  from  settled  doctrines  as  to 
the  tendency  of  arbitrary  and  irresponsible 
power  and  the  natural  effect  on  its  unwilling 
objects. 

Every  one  is  doctrinaire  enough  to  infer 
something  from  general  principles.  Standing 
on  the  wharf  ready  for  departure  one  looks 
at  the  clean,  coarse  fiber  in  its  bales,  thinks  of 
its  growth  under  the  ardent  but  not  unwhole- 
some rays  of  the  sun,  and  would  be  willing  to 
vote  that  no  man  should  betray  another  sim- 
pler man  into  debt  and  servitude  in  order  to 
obtain  its  cultivation.  Free  labor  and  a  fair 
share  of  its  return,  together  with  the  strict 
punishment  of  any  one  who  should  advance 
money  on  a  labor  contract,  might  be  hard  for 
existing  enterprise  to  adjust  itself  to;  but  on 
broad  humanitarian  grounds  one  would  be 
willing  to  see  it  honestly,  bravely,  and  persist- 
ently tried.  Even  should  production  fall  off, 
there  are  worse  things  conceivable.  One  goes 

55 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

away  inclined  to  give  the  exploited  poor  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt.  "That  is,"  retort  the 
defenders,  "you  would  be  willing  to  try  ex- 
periments at  some  one  else's  expense."  There 
are  indeed  many  things  that  one  might  hesi- 
tate to  try  at  one's  own  expense,  yet  which 
the  most  rudimentary  justice  demands.  Dis- 
interested public  opinion  is  needed  to  arbi- 
trate. 


NOTE  TO  1919  EDITION:— It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  under 
an  entirely  new  regime,  with  a  governor  whose  political  theories  arc 
advanced  and  even  radical,  the  people  of  Yucatan  have  entered  a 
very  different  set  of  conditions.  While  there  are  conflicting  opinions, 
somewhat  influenced,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that  the  price  of  American 
binder  twine  has  been  forced  upward,  unquestionably  the  plantation 
laborer  has  obtained  a  measure  of  freedom.  This  has  been  brought 
about,  too,  without  any  intervening  period  of  chaos  or  general  dis- 
order, so  far  as  Yucatan  is  concerned. 


V 

VERA   CRUZ 

ABOARD  again  and  ashore  again!  This 
time,  after  two  nights  and  a  day,  it  is 
Vera  Cruz.  It  might  have  been  Tam- 
pico,  another  important  and  somewhat  expen- 
sive man-made  harbor  250  miles  farther  north, 
if  we  had  cared  to  change  lines  at  Progreso. 
We  should  have  fared  worse  for  the  rest  of 
our  sea  voyage,  however;  and  unless  in  the 
way  of  hunting  or  tarpon  fishing  should  have 
had  little  reward  for  it.  Eight  days,  leas  a 
few  hours,  is  the  time  from  leaving  New  York 
till  you  anchor  at  Vera  Cruz,  if  the  port  in- 
spection at  Progreso  is  made  promptly.  It  is 
said  that  this  sometimes  happens. 

Vera  Cruz  has  a  delightful  little  park  with 
so  many  fine  trees  and  shrubs  that  its  conven- 
tionality does  not  appear.  It  has  a  good  mili- 
tary band  to  play  martial  and  other  airs  in  the 
evening,  and  a  hotel  of  an  aspect  as  old  as 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  from  under  the  ppr_- 

57 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

tal  of  which  the  band  can  be  heard  to  advan- 
tage. There  are  two  or  three  hundred  girls 
who  walk  round  the  outer  square  of  the  plaza 
making  themselves  part  of  the  little  poem  to 
which  the  trees  and  the  music  also  belong.  A 
visitor  who  could  afford  to  dash  illusions  to 
the  ground  would  call  only  a  very  few  of  the 
girls  beautiful;  and  there  are  at  least  tAvo  or 
three  for  whom  an  attempt  at  modernity  has 
resulted  in  the  absurd.  Most,  however,  are 
picturesque,  and  have  a  quaintness  that  makes 
them  pleasant  to  look  at  in  the  well-filtered 
though  abundant  light.  They  come  to  enjoy 
the  music  and  the  activity,  to  distract  the 
minds  of  an  equal  number  of  less  interesting 
young  men,  and,  perhaps,  to  play  with  some 
mild  distraction  in  their  own  pretty  heads. 
Some  have  older  women  as  visible  accessories, 
for  others,  mother  love  is  watchful  from  the 
benches  among  the  trees,  and  for  still  others, 
as  Vera  Cruz  is  a  coast  town  and  has  learned 
foreign  ways,  perhaps  no  one  is  vigilant.  The 
girls  revolve  like  a  circlet  of  paper  flowers  in 
one  direction,  and  the  young  men  in  a  circle 
without  take  the  opposite  direction,  by  which 
device  mutual  admiration  may  exchange 
glances  twice  on  each  round.  Still  a  third 

58 


VERA    CRUZ 

circle  is  made  up  of  the  lower-class  people, 
men  and  women,  wrho  also  love  the  music,  the 
light  and  flickering  shadows,  and  the  barter- 
ing of  glances — if  this  were  worthy  of  notice 
in  their  case.  For  one  thing  I  have  watched 
them  and  have  not  seen  it.  There  is  no  look 
of  envy  or  resentment  toward  those  whom 
Fortune  has  placed  nearer  the  center  of  the 
wheel  of  happiness.  They  belong  to  a  docile, 
placidly  reflective  race  who  take  most  things 
for  granted.  Of  the  three  revolving  rings  the 
outmost  is  not  the  least  satisfactory  to  the  im- 
agination. As  for  the  young  men,  they  will 
show  better  in  daytime,  when  one  does  not  so 
greatly  miss  the  tight-fitting  leather  or  velvet 
that  they  ought  to  be  wearing  instead  of  the 
foreign  clothes  which  they  have  not  yet  learned 
to  wear,  and  when  they  and  we  have  other 
thoughts  than  now.  One  smiles  at  the  young 
men  here  in  the  evening. 

There  are  Americans  who  eat  and  drink 
too  much  under  the  portales.  There  are  money 
changers  who  demand  five  per  cent.,  to  en- 
hance the  better  currency  than  their  own 
which  you  have  to  offer.  There  are,  to  be 
sought  in  due  time,  great  high-posted  beds 
canopied  with  mosquito  netting,  now  less 

59 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

needed  than  a  few  years  ago,  but  still  not 
amiss  as  a  precaution;  the  beds  are  two  in 
each  room,  and  a  room  is  as  large  as  a  town 
hall.  If  you  get  a  front  room,  which  is  best, 
you  will  have  air  to  breathe,  will  see  new 
charms  of  the  park,  but  will  be  kept  awake  by 
street  noises,  including  those  of  electric  cars. 
A  flat  wheel  in  Vera  Cruz  sounds  very  much 
as  it  would  in  Hoboken.  So  also  does  a 
phonograph  whose  voice  is  changing. 

All  these  things  are  easily  seen  and  experi- 
enced. 

You  may  incline  to  hurry  away  because  of 
the  reputation  of  the  port  for  mosquitoes  and 
fever.  If  your  fortune  is  like  mine  recently, 
however,  you  will  see  nothing  to  suggest  mos- 
quitoes but  the  netting  over  the  bed.  I  re- 
member when  they  were  in  evidence.  As  for 
fever,  in  the  winter  months  it  is  very  rare,  and 
no  longer  prevalent  at  any  season.  The  few 
cases  that  occur  are  chiefly  among  those  classes 
who  cannot  or  will  not  meet  the  requirements 
of  sanitation.  Probably  you  will  not  take  a 
sip  of  water  in  the  city,  except  what  is  bought 
in  bottles  at  a  sufficient  price ;  and  this  is  well 
enough;  but  still  you  ought  to  be  told  that 
the  city  water  obtained  from  the  Jamapa 

60 


VERA    CRUZ 

River  is  passed  through  great  filtration  beds 
on  which  a  good  deal  of  money  has  been 
spent,  that  there  is  a  two-million-dollar  sew- 
age system,  and  that  conditions  generally  are 
much  better  than  they  were  a  decade  ago.  No 
one  used  to  stay  in  Vera  Cruz  longer  than 
necessary,  and  any  foreigner  whose  work  held 
him  there  would  have  his  family  no  nearer 
than  Orizaba. 

It  may  happen,  if  your  steamer  makes  port 
in  the  morning,  that  you  will  have  an  enforced 
wait  of  a  day  in  which  to  learn  some  of  these 
things  for  yourself.  Then,  perhaps,  you  will 
make  a  trip  to  the  old  Castle  of  San  Juan  de 
Ulua.  Begun  in  1528,  built  at  an  inflated 
cost  of  forty  million  pesos  in  all,  but,  like 
more  recent  works  at  Vera  Cruz,  done  well  if 
bravely  charged  for  in  the  bill,  beaten  upon 
by  the  unlempered  storms  of  the  open  sea, 
captured  more  than  once  by  buccaneers,  made 
the  last  stronghold  of  Spain  in  the  war  for 
Mexican  independence,  later  occupied,  in  1838, 
by  the  French,  and  again,  in  1847,  by  an  Amer- 
ican fleet,  witness  in  its  dungeons  of  miseries 
untold,  and  even  lately  the  frowning  tomb  of 
many  civil  or  political  offenders  in  whom  hope 
was  dead,  San  Juan  de  Ulua  has  a  more 

61 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

Varied  and  awesome  history  than  any  other 
fortress  on  the  western  continent.  The  Span- 
iards are  gone  forever,  and  it  is  known  how 
they  kept  prisoners  in  mere  manholes  where 
the  tide  would  rise  to  their  necks.  Other  cruel- 
ties more  revolting  are  known.  The  military 
rule  under  which  Porfirio  Diaz  held  the  coun- 
try being  so  recently  at  an  end,  and  his  suc- 
cessor having  been  less  addicted  to  the  press 
agent  than  he,  we  do  not  know  fully  what 
uses  he  made  of  this  most  dreaded  prison. 
The  dungeons  and  the  manholes  are  still  there ; 
but  our  guide-book,  published  under  official 
sanction  during  his  regime,  naively  says  that 
the  humane  government  does  not  use  them. 
However  that  may  have  been,  in  November, 
1911,  President  Madero  ordered  that  all  pris- 
oners be  removed  from  the  castle  to  more  sani- 
tary quarters. 

If  you  go  out  upon  one  of  the  jetties,  at  the 
end  you  will  see  boys  fishing  with  long  lines, 
heavy  "sinkers,"  and  large  bait  for  fish  dimin- 
utive, though  of  brilliant  colors;  or  they  may 
be  flying  kites  out  here  where  no  trees  or  wires 
obstruct.  You  should  admire  the  masonry, 
and  read  from  your  guide-book  that  harbor 
protection  at  Vera  Cruz  cost  four  hundred 


VERA    CRUZ 

years  and  thirty  million  pesos  ($15,000,000). 

You  will  surely  walk  or  ride  out  from  the 
main  plaza  to  the  Alameda,  another  more  in- 
formal park,  and  so  out  the  Paseo  de  los 
Cocos.  The  winter  temperature  is  delightful. 
From  one  of  the  benches  on  a  Sunday  or  a 
holiday  you  may  review  a  great  deal  of  life. 

This  Paseo  de  los  Cocos  has  not  one  strik- 
ing feature,  unless  the  stretch  of  avenue  and 
park  itself  with  the  rows  of  graceful  trees  be 
meant.  Yet,  to  the  visitor  with  a  leisure  hour, 
there  is  something  about  the  street  as  a  whole 
that  will  make  itself  felt  as  unique.  There  are 
typical  houses  of  every  style  that  the  varied 
character  of  the  people  would  suggest,  includ- 
ing the  American,  and  of  every  quality  from 
that  of  comparative  affluence  to  that  of  the 
laborer.  Whoever  has  traveled  in  the  South 
of  the  United  States  and  has  gone  up  and 
down  the  streets  of  a  negro  quarter  in  any  but 
a  very  large  town  with  his  imagination  alert 
will  know  what  is  meant  by  saying  that  houses 
of  the  negro-cabin  type,  though  not  all  occu- 
pied by  negroes,  predominate.  The  little  dwell- 
ings are  pretty  in  their  way,  most  of  them, 
and  decently  kept.  The  fine  avenues  of  trees 
lends  to  them  a  setting  that  their  owners 

63 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

could  never  have  procured.  The  air  of  the 
whole  place  seems  one  of  greater  content- 
ment, of  more  relaxation  and  ease  of  life  than 
that  of  the  usual  street  in  Mexico.  The 
Mexican  poor  may  suggest  patience  or  abject 
submission  to  a  miserable  state;  but  they  sel- 
dom show  the  happy  abandon  of  the  negro. 
As  you  go  along  here  there  is  a  feeling  that 
normally  the  world  is  kind  even  to  the  poor. 
Arrived  at  the  end  of  the  avenue  you  stand 
by  a  statue  of  liberty  whose  design  you  will 
soon  forget,  and  your  eye  sweeps  on  over  a 
view  of  country  that  will  not  be  so  soon  for- 
gotten. The  statue  marks  for  these  people 
the  end  of  what  is  accomplished  or  determi- 
nate; but  the  road  goes  on,  and  there  are  still 
palms  that  wave  gracefully,  and  gentle  hills 
that  rim  in  the  picture,  and  sky  that  is  deep 
with  haze — a  soft  enlargement  every  way  that 
if  it  does  not  summon  them  to  largeness  of 
achievement  must  beguile  them  into  largeness 
of  comfort.  They  are  not  poets  or  wordy 
commentators ;  but  they  do  come  out  here  and 
look — have  we  not  seen  them  doing  so,  quietly, 
by  families,  the  white,  the  black,  the  yellow, 
and  the  various  blends  of  these?  If  you  walk 
back  along  the  Paseo  in  the  gathering  twilight 

64 


VERA    CRUZ 

you  will  fancy  that  the  natural  scene  is  re- 
flected in  all  that  you  pass.  It  may  be  only 
fancy,  but  it  is  likely  to  remain. 

There  is  an  evening  train  for  the  highlands, 
but  if  you  take  it  you  will  miss  the  evening 
view  of  the  city,  and,  what  is  worse,  will  be 
able  to  see  little  on  the  way  up.  So  you  will 
doubtless  choose  to  spend  the  night  at  Hotel 
Diligencias.  From  your  balcony  when  you 
are  awake  you  will  become  aware  of  a  rather 
fine  old  church  fronting  the  park,  lovely  in 
color,  admirable  in  lines,  and  of  impressive 
solidity.  From  your  vantage  point  at  a  dis- 
tance you  have  seen  it  at  its  best. 

You  will  betake  yourself  in  the  half-light 
to  the  railway  station,  which  is  less  than  half 
lighted,  and  will  vaguely  hope  that  you  are 
enough  awake  to  have  found  the  right  way 
out  of  this  perilous  and  purgatorial  state  to 
the  paradise  of  your  expectations.  You  will 
have  learned  that  a  modern  union  station,  in 
keeping  with  the  substantial  customs  houses, 
postoffice,  lighthouse,  and  other  pwblic  build- 
ings, is  under  construction;  but  this  will  not 
relieve  you  of  groping  through  the  old  one. 
Make  your  way  to  the  ticket  window  and  ask 
for  a  time-table  and  the  agent  will  tell  you 

65 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

"No  hay,"  which  is  pronounced  as  if  allu- 
ding to  the  darkness,  "No  eye,"  and  which 
means  that  the  thing  desired  is  non-existent. 
You  will  become  familiar  with  it  in  Mexico 
partly  because  every  second-hand  American 
wag  will  emphasize  its  recurrence.  As  for 
time-tables,  doubtless  the  passenger  is  expect- 
ed to  carry  the  Guia  Oficial,  a  monthly  rail- 
road guide  to  be  had  at  trifling  cost. 

There  is  so  much  in  anticipation  that  Vera 
Cruz  may  seem  only  a  gateway  and  you  bid 
it  no  lingering  farewell.  Yet  this  town,  which 
was  almost  a  century  old  when  Shakespeare 
and  Cervantes  wrrote,  has  a  great  deal  of  his- 
tory that  may  be  read  before  and  after  the 
observations  of  a  day;  and  even  apart  from 
reading  you  may  find  more  direct  impressions 
treasured  in  mind  from  your  first  day  in 
Mexico  than  just  now  you  are  aware. 


66 


VI 

TEHUANTEPEC   AND    THE   JUNGLE 

AS  yet  there  can  be  no  just  quarrel  with 
the    goings    or    the    tarryings    of    our 
journey,   because   they   have    involved 
little  choice;  but  henceforth  there  is  all  the 
latitude  that  a  great  country  of  varying  in- 
terests affords.     The  visitor  for  a  few  weeks 
must  choose,  then  harden  himself  against  all 
distracting  allurements. 

Mexico  City  is  in  mind  when  Vera  Cruz  is 
left,  not  only  because  it  is  now  the  capital 
and  metropolis  but  because  in  historic  times 
it  has  always  claimed  this  distinction  and  be- 
cause the  route  thither  is  the  most  famous  in 
the  republic.  Economy  of  travel,  however, 
will  dictate  that  some  other  places  be  visited 
earlier.  We  turn  southward  toward  the  Isth- 
mus of  Tehuantepec,  over  the  Vera  Cruz 
al  Istmo  Railway  to  a  restaurant  with  an 
American  manager  and  Chinese  service  which 
bears  the  devout  Castilian  name  of  Santa 

67 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Lucrecia.  There  may  be  a  colony  of  alliga- 
tors to  swell  the  importance  of  the  place,  for 
alligators  do  abound  in  parts  of  the  Coatza- 
coalcos  River;  but  the  freedom  with  which 
native  women  and  children  bathe  below  the 
iron  bridge  would  argue  that  the  alligators, 
if  present,  are  little  regarded.  What  makes 
Santa  Lucrecia  of  any  note  is  that  there  the 
railroad  has  its  junction  with  the  trans-isth- 
mian route  called  the  Ferrocarnl  National  de 
Tehuantepec.  We  are  on  our  way  to  the 
Pacific  terminus  of  that  line,  which  has  been 
in  operation  since  1907,  which  is  better  known 
in  Europe  than  in  the  United  States,  and 
which  it  is  prophesied  will  be  an  enduring 
rival  of  the  Panama  Canal  for  all  freight 
traffic  between  the  two  oceans. 

The  traveler  who  left  Vera  Cruz  in  the 
morning  reaches  Santa  Lucrecia  about  bed- 
time. The  eating  house,  as  one  writer  has 
nicely  phrased  it,  suggests  the  old  California 
mining  camps  with  their  "cheap  bars  and 
camp  grub."  "Here,"  he  declares,  "you  put 
your  zinc  teaspoon  into  the  sugar-bowl  lest 
you  offend  by  superior  ways;  drink  without 
wincing  if  any  one  asks  you  to,  and  hold  your 
tongue."  In  a  literary  way  I  would  not  criti- 

68 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

else  this.  As  to  its  meaning,  I  have  never 
tried  wincing  over  a  drink,  or  loosing  my 
tongue  in  disparagement  of  one  already 
taken;  but  I  refused  to  drink  at  Santa  Lu- 
crecia  with  no  more  hesitancy  than  I  would 
in  Saratoga;  and  the  company,  including  a 
young  American  engineer,  an  English  plan- 
tation manager,  the  German  captain  of  a 
river  boat  running  to  Coatzacoalcos,  and 
some  mixed  or  nondescript  personages  did 
not  take  affront.  We  continued  talking  to- 
gether for  hours  till  my  train  left,  they  ex- 
ercising their  liberties  and  I  undisputed  in 
mine. 

The  embarrassments  and  perils  to  a  "total 
abstainer"  in  Mexico,  by  the  way,  are  often 
exaggerated.  I  have  heard  Americans  coun- 
seled to  absent  themselves  from  certain  social 
gatherings  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be 
a  serious  breach  of  amenity  to  refuse  any- 
thing offered;  but  when  they  disregarded  the 
advice  they  found  their  hosts  as  open  to 
polite  explanation  as  Americans  would  be  in 
like  circumstances.  The  Governor's  family 
in  the  state  where  I  lived  gave  continued  and 
unmistakable  demonstrations  of  cordiality  to 
a  visitor  who  had  declined  their  cognac  from 

69 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

the  gracious  hand  of  the  Governor's  wife 
herself.  Why  should  they  not?  to  be  sure. 
As  for  the  absence  or  unfitness  of  water,  in 
restaurants  mineral  spring  water  is  almost 
as  omnipresent  as  beer;  boiled  milk  is  fur- 
nished; and  then  there  are  always  coffee,  tea, 
and  chocolate,  all  of  which  have  of  course 
been  boiled.  Lime  juice  is  recommended  on 
good  authority  as  a  discourager  of  germs,  so 
that  a  little  may  wisely  be  squeezed  into  water 
of  which  one  is  not  sure.  On  jaunts,  oranges 
and  other  fruits  often  take  the  place  of  drink; 
the  palatable  tuna  or  prickly  pear  grows  on 
some  of  the  driest  deserts.  The  milk  of  a 
new  cocoanut  (coco  de  agua),  if  obtainable, 
will  quench  thirst  for  hours.  All  this  is  of- 
fered not  as  stimulating  but  perhaps  as  serv- 
iceable information. 

Santa  Lucrecia  is  about  midway  between 
the  two  oceans,  though  not  at  the  height  of 
land,  as  the  Pacific  slope  is  much  more  abrupt 
and  the  highest  point,  therefore,  about  forty 
miles  west  of  the  middle.  By  west  I  mean 
toward  the  Pacific;  and  that  is  directly  south. 
We  have  been  for  some  little  time  and  are 
still  in  a  region  of  heavy  rainfall,  and  the 
country  is  a  typical  jungle  in  consequence; 

70 


TEHUANTEPEC   AND    THE    JUNGLE 

but  it  will  end  abruptly  at  the  ridge.  The 
difference  between  aridity  on  the  Pacific  slope 
and  abundant  rain  on  the  Atlantic  which  is 
indicated  for  South  America  is  almost  equally 
marked  even  here  where  the  ridge  becomes 
low,  and  is  narrowed  to  125  miles.  The  west 
side  has  comparatively  little  forest,  while  the 
east  has  the  greatest  conceivable  variety  and 
luxuriance  of  growth. 

As  evening  had  begun  to  lower  before  the 
change  from  semi-desert  conditions  took  place, 
it  will  be  impossible  just  now  to  get  a  full 
impression  of  the  jungle.  That  requires 
either  a  long  time  or  the  traversing  of  con- 
siderable distance.  The  traveler  is  aware  at 
the  first  approach  of  a  coolness  after  the 
scorching  heat  of  mid-day  on  the  plains,  of 
a  gradual  increase  in  vegetation  until  it  is 
abundant,  and  of  the  insect  choir,  which, 
though  different  voices  may  enter,  seems  to 
produce  at  nightfall  the  same  droning  effect 
wherever  and  whenever  heard,  It  is  a  sur- 
prise to  find  that  one  is  to  have  a  comfortable 
night,  a  thick  blanket  proving  not  unwel- 
come. 

Now  the  train  is  slipping  downward  over 
the  isthmus,  the  highest  point  being 

71 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

at  an  altitude  of  750  feet,  and  vegetation 
begins  to  grow  less.  You  may  be  prepared 
to  view  a  quite  different  country  from  your 
car  window  in  the  morning. 

If  you  are  up  betimes  you  will  catch  sight 
of  Tehuantepec,  the  name  of  which  place  is 
also  the  name  of  the  Isthmus,  and  about 
which  you  can  read  and  hear  tales  to  stir 
your  blood.  The  tales  belong  to  the  whole 
region  and  some  of  them  more  specifically  to 
other  towns  like  Juchitan,  a  few  miles  away; 
but  Tehuantepec  is  the  name  with  which  they 
have  become  associated.  They  are  stories  of 
a  race  prouder,  braver,  handsomer,  and  it 
may  be  more  intelligent  than  others  round 
about,  refusing  to  intermarry  with  other 
tribes  and  having  tastes  and  standards  quite 
their  own.  Men  and  women  were  numeri- 
cally proportioned  to  each  other  somewhat 
as  elsewhere,  no  doubt,  till  the  men  were 
killed  off.  Then  the  women,  still  disdaining 
to  marry  with  men  of  a  lower  type,  assumed 
the  business  and  the  leadership,  and  it  be- 
came a  community  of  women. 

A  brother  of  Porfirio  Diaz  figures  in  the 
history  of  this  change.  Being  governor  of 
the  state  of  Oaxaca,  which  includes  the  Te- 

72 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

huantepec  region,  he  did  such  wholesale  vio- 
lence to  property  rights,  to  the  virtue  of 
native  women,  and  to  life  itself,  that  he 
could  no  longer  be  tolerated.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  in  the  act  of  fleeing  from  the  country 
when,  early  in  the  year  1877,  he  was  cap- 
tured by  the  Indians,  tortured  as  dreadfully 
as  he  had  tortured  many  victims,  and  then 
killed.  It  is  said  that  vengeance  at  the  behest 
of  President  Diaz  on  account  of  this  act  was 
what  prompted  a  massacre  of  nearly  all  male 
inhabitants  of  the  place  long  afterward, 
though  he  is  credited  with  having  planned 
to  kill  only  every  tenth  male  and  not  all 
that  the  soldiers  could  reach,  as  actually 
happened.  Porfirio  Diaz  has  not  been  ac- 
customed to  tell  his  motives  or  explain  his 
actions,  but  a  cold-blooded  massacre  did  oc- 
cur, removing  a  large  part  of  the  men  who 
had  not  been  sacrificed  in  the  long  war  with 
Spain  and  the  later  civil  wars;  and  the  gen- 
eral understanding  of  its  motive  is  as  just 
suggested. 

Ten  years  ago  people  said  little  about  such 
matters;  but  in  the  spring  of  1911,  when 
they  might  with  reason  have  been  more  cau- 
tious than  ever,  I  found  them  eager  every- 

73 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

where  to  say  what  they  knew  and  believed. 
Books  and  periodicals  in  the  United  States, 
too,  have  not  hesitated  to  disclose  a  great 
many  things  the  mere  hint  of  which,  in  1910, 
Avould  have  caused  some  reviewer  in  the  New 
York  Post  to  denounce  the  authors  as  guilty 
of  "ignorant  abuse."  To  say  that  on  the 
whole  Mexico  has  been  ruled  in  a  way  favor- 
able or  unfavorable  to  ultimate  high  destiny 
is  perhaps  not  given  to  fallible  critics  at  this 
time.  But  that  the  existing  rule  has  often 
been  accompanied  by  deliberate,  profuse,  and 
relentless  shedding  of  blood  for  over  thirty 
years  every  one  at  all  familiar  with  the  facts 
knows.  When  drastic  measures  were  taken 
against  the  lawless  and  violent,  they  had  the 
apparent  sanction  of  necessity.  A  charac- 
teristic policy  of  President  Diaz  was  setting 
"a  thief  to  catch  a  thief" — he  mobilized  com- 
panies of  bandits  and  organized  them  into 
the  "Rurales"  whose  duty  it  was  to  hunt 
other  bandits  and  render  country  travel  safe. 
Such  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  an  arbitrary 
and  irresponsible  ruler,  however,  lent  itself 
too  easily,  some  have  thought,  to  less  justi- 
fiable use.  That  intimidation  and  repression, 
banishment,  summary  killing  of  individuals 

74 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

guilty  of  no  moral  wrong,  and  now  and  then 
wholesale  slaughter  were  admirably  suited  to 
the  needs  of  the  nation  may  be  quite  obvious 
to  a  few  minds;  but  to  the  average  intelli- 
gence it  seems  doubtful. 

And  here  is  Tehuantepec  shifting  brightly 
across  the  vision  in  the  morning  light.  A 
few  women  at  the  station  who  might  be 
Queens  of  Sheba  unless  their  garb  seem  too 
brilliant,  a  few  who  look  like  the  witch  of 
Endor,  some  market  people  carrying  their 
wares,  a  highway  bridge  over  the  track,  a 
strange  -  looking  hotel  with  a  high  wall,  a 
sparsely  inhabited  street,  lined  with  cocoanut 
trees  on  the  outskirts  of  the  place,  and  some 
bathers  in  the  Tehuantepec  River  are  all  that 
you  see  of  this  town  of  10,000  inhabitants,  as 
you  pass  westward. 

I  spent  a  night  at  Tehuantepec  on  the 
Way  back  from  Salina  Cruz,  at  a  hotel  whose 
proprietor,  in  the  good  English  of  an  intelli- 
gent Jamaican  negro,  declared  himself  an 
"honest  thief,"  and  who  justified  the  adjective 
in  all  his  dealing  with  me.  I  would  not  ad- 
vise, and  he  would  not  advise,  ladies  of  fas- 
tidious requirements  to  put  up  at  his  house, 
nor  in  his  town.  Yet  if  they  could  ignore 

75 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

whatever  did  not  look  good  to  them  they 
might,  I  think,  not  fare  badly  in  any  respect. 
They  should  find  their  rooms  only  at  the  hour 
of  retiring,  and  plan  to  leave  them  without 
scrutiny  immediately  when  awakened. 

I  walked  about  in  the  evening  and  early 
morning;  talked  for  hours  with  an  old  pros- 
pector who  has  lived  among  the  Indians  in 
their  villages;  inquired  afterward  about  the 
place  and  its  people  of  officials,  American  and 
Mexican;  read  what  the  books  say  about  it; 
and  found  that  although  a  month  would  be 
needed  for  even  such  study  as  a  casual,  non- 
professional  visitor  would  be  prompted  to 
undertake,  the  impressions  and  ideas  that  I 
was  able  to  gather  had  the  advantage  of  being 
reasonably  clear  and  consistent. 

The  Tehuanas  live  very  much  in  their  own 
way.  No  intimate,  everyday  influence  came 
to  bear  on  their  conservatism  till  the  rail- 
road was  completed  in  1907,  if  even  that  has 
brought  any  such  influence  to  bear.  Of 
course  I  speak  of  the  native  Indians,  not  offi- 
cials or  other  Mexicans  from  elsewhere,  who 
are  as  alien  as  the  American  himself.  They 
are  not  imitative  of  foreigners.  Their  adobe 
houses  vary  in  size  and  costliness,  many  being 

76 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

only  of  two  rooms,  some  being  quite  exten- 
sive; and  the  furnishings  differ  accordingly. 
Their  dress,  even  if  they  have  means  to  buy 
costly  materials,  adheres  to  their  own  style, 
which  is  simple  in  cut  but  often  elaborate  in 
trimming,  vivid  in  color,  harmonious  with 
their  physiognomy  and  bearing,  graceful  in 
effect,  and  altogether  of  an  Oriental  sug- 
gestion. A  young  woman  of  such  beauty, 
symmetry,  and  carriage  that  she  might  pose 
for  Cleopatra  is  as  little  conscious  of  bare 
feet  and  ankles  as  though  she  lived  in  Cleo- 
patra's Egypt.  If  a  triangle  of  meerschaum- 
color  shows  on  either  side  above  the  waist- 
band of  her  red  skirt,  it  is  a  thing  of  habit  and 
she  thinks  nothing  of  it.  Clothing,  for  the 
most  part,  is  to  her  like  the  silk  scarf  that  she 
carries  over  one  wrist,  as  inseparable  as  the 
Japanese  girl's  fan,  or  like  the  necklace  of 
gold  coins  that  she  wears — it  is  for  adorn- 
ment. Concealment  of  person  is  no  more 
essential  to  her  than  to  Eve  after  the  first 
accession  of  modesty ;  but  of  the  little  require- 
ment in  this  respect  she  is  never  forgetful. 
Her  modesty  is  as  real  and  her  sense  of 
decorum  as  definite  as  that  of  the  civilized 
and  sophisticated  American  or  European. 

77 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Her  neatness,  cleanliness,  and  fitness  of  per- 
sonal ornament  are  such  as  to  give  one  a 
pang  when  the  inevitable  result  of  outside  in- 
fluence is  thought  of. 

Morality  is  a  thing  that  strangers  may 
easily  misapprehend.  The  morals  of  these 
people  are  somewhat  primitive,  but  not  de- 
graded, if  the  two  words  are  in  any  danger 
of  being  confused.  Some  will  understand  if 
it  be  said  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of  un- 
morality  but  very  little  downright  immorality 
— very  little  wantonness.  I  have  heard  coarse 
men  and  men  of  careless  speech  declare  ad- 
miration and  respect  for  the  women  of  Te- 
huantepec. 

Two  Tehuana  girls  are  employed  as  serv- 
ants by  a  cultured  American  woman  in  an- 
other town.  They  are  honest,  and  she  trusts 
a  good  deal  to  them.  They  are  also  confid- 
ing. They  do  all  the  rough,  domestic  work 
of  her  house.  They  are  as  quiet-mannered  as 
any  guest  that  she  entertains.  Their  scant 
garments  are  as  clean  as  she  could  wish  her 
own  to  be.  She  says  that  they  not  only  bathe, 
but  wash  their  abundant  black  hair  every  day. 
They  would  no  more  put  on  shoes  than  she 
would  put  a  ring  in  her  nose;  but  they  have 

78 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

pretty  sandals  to  wear  when  so  inclined. 
Each  wears  at  her  daily  work  a  necklace 
worth  from  a  hundred  to  two  hundred  dol- 
lars and  carries  the  inevitable  scarf.  Each 
has  a  more  costly  necklace  for  festal  occa- 
sions. Their  straight,  tapering,  and  daintily 
kept  fingers  show  no  signs  of  toil,  their  slen- 
der wrists  are  not  thickened  by  the  wringing 
of  clothes;  they  seem  immune  to  the  effects 
that  we  usually  think  inseparable  from  labor. 
And  how  long  will  they  keep  their  youth? 
Well,  they  mature  early;  but  the  Tehuana 
matron  is  also  a  creature  of  dignity,  keeps  her 
pride,  and  has  a  look  of  character.  The  aver- 
age of  good  looks  in  Tehuantepec  is  doubt- 
less greater  than  anywhere  else  in  Mexico, 
and  the  average  in  Mexico,  to  any  one  of 
catholic  taste,  is  distinctly  greater  than  among 
the  people  that  most  foreign  observers  left  at 
home.  Colors  and  contours  to  delight  an 
artist  are  everywhere;  though  the  wretchedly 
poor,  the  aged,  the  lame,  the  halt,  and  the 
blind  may  show  as  hideous  marks  of  social 
injustice  here  as  elsewhere,  and  there  are  as 
many  of  them  in  Mexico  as  in  any  fruitful 
land  under  the  sun. 

Of  men  who  appear  to  be  of  the  same 
79 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

stock  as  these  women  of  Tehuantepec  there 
are  few  enough  to  confirm  the  legend  as  to 
how  they  were  decimated.  There  are  few 
enough  native  men  of  any  stock,  though  the 
old  haughty  exclusiveness  is  breaking  down 
of  late.  Such  men  as  one  does  see  at  all 
identified  with  the  population  are  markedly 
inferior  to  the  women.  So  the  matriarchate 
which  has  been  the  rule  for  a  generation  will 
doubtless  prevail  for  at  least  one  generation 
more  in  this  city  of  women. 

Have  the  men  of  the  mountains,  like  the 
men  of  the  valley  settlements  hereabouts, 
been  exterminated?  By  no  means  in  the  same 
degree.  My  prospector  friend  told  me  of 
places  where  a  camera  and  tripod,  if  mis- 
taken for  a  surveyor's  instrument,  may  bring 
a  fusillade  on  its  luckless  possessor,  and 
where  the  authority  of  the  central  Mexican 
government  is  not  recognized,  but  where  the 
people  are  reasonably  friendly  if  they  can  be 
assured  as  to  one's  designs.  There  is  tung- 
sten in  some  of  the  high  mountains,  a  good 
deal  of  coal,  and  unestimated  stores  of  silver, 
iron,  and  other  metals,  the  opening  of  which 
might  have  been  hastened  but  for  the  some- 
what deterrent  attitude  of  the  mountaineers. 

80 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

Yet  these  people,  less  known  than  the  Yaquis 
of  Sonora  and  regarded  as  equally  warlike, 
may  prove  as  little  opposed  to  progress  on 
equitable  terms  as  many  fair  writers  believe 
the  Yaquis  to  have  been.  They  do  not  trust 
the  powers  that  be;  and  to  obtain  and  deserve 
their  confidence  would  be  one  of  the  duties 
of  a  progressive,  enlightened  government. 

The  most  conscious  object  of  a  trip  south 
from  Vera  Cruz  is  usually  to  inspect  the 
remarkable  railroad  and  two  splendid  harbors 
which,  at  a  cost  of  about  $65,000,000,  have 
established  a  freight  route  between  the  Paci- 
fic and  the  Atlantic  shorter  by  four  days  and 
nearer  by  1250  miles  than  that  through  the 
Panama  Canal.  This  is  a  sufficient  object  in 
itself.  But,  after  all,  one  ought  seldom  to 
travel  with  a  single  purpose.  It  would  be 
like  throwing  away  the  by-products  of  the 
cotton  industry.  We  are  on  our  way  to  gaze 
at  the  artificial  harbor,  the  dry  dock  which  is 
the  largest  on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  modern 
electric  cranes  for  handling  freight,  the  cars 
of  special  type  for  receiving  their  loads,  the 
special  oil-burning  engines,  the  special  swamp 
road  construction,  the  devices  for  spraying 
hot  chemicals  to  kill  the  almost  irrepressible 

81 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

vegetation,  and  the  other  means,  anachronistic 
in  this  land  of  supposed  inaction,  through 
which  the  uses  of  our  heralded  canal,  save  the 
passing  of  war  vessels,  have  been  anticipated 
by  a  decade.  Yet  we  will  not  reproach  our- 
selves for  having  paused  over  old,  forgotten, 
far-off  things.  The  decade  or  so  will  pass, 
the  great  canal  will  be  finished,  both  routes 
may  find  use  beyond  their  capacity  and  we 
shall  see  engineering  feats  to  transcend  them 
both;  but  we  shall  never,  later,  be  able  to 
muse  a  day  in  the  Tehuantepec  that  now 
charms  and  baffles  us.  I  had  the  privilege  of 
visiting  one  of  the  harbors  and  rowing  about 
the  jetties  in  the  company  of  an  American 
army  engineer  whose  name  is  familiar  to 
most  readers,  and  he  was  as  much  interested 
as  professionally  he  should  be.  Yet  he  be- 
trayed more  interest  in  a  primitive  Isthmian 
ox-cart  than  in  any  appliance  that  we  saw — 
a  cart  entirely  innocent  of  tire,  bolt,  nail, 
buckle,  or  other  scrap  of  metal;  hewn  out  of 
wood  by  rude  implements;  fastened  together 
by  wooden  pins  and  by  thongs ;  a  perfect,  un- 
perverted  example  of  its  type,  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  so  much  foreign  innovation. 
Salina  Cruz  is  not  a  Mexican  town  and  as 
82 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

a  town  deserves  little  attention.  A  courteous 
American  consul  and  an  admirable  hotel  con- 
ducted by  a  refined  American  woman  from 
Kentucky  or  Texas  or  somewhere,  figure  in 
the  traveler's  note-book  as  next  in  importance 
to  the  harbor  works.  A  day  is  sufficient,  and 
next  morning  one  starts  up  the  slope  again 
toward  the  other  terminus  of  the  road.  Long 
before  noon  the  height  of  land  is  reached. 
This  time  the  jungle  is  experienced  in  day- 
light, and  over  such  distance  that  its  char- 
acter may  be  felt.  Palm  trees,  banana  plants, 
trees  that  might  belong  to  some  species  fa- 
miliar at  home  for  all  that  the  eye  could  tell, 
undergrowth,  tangles  of  vines,  mosses,  flags, 
and  lily  pads  make  altogether  a  variety  and 
excess  that  is  inconceivable.  Many  of  the 
trees  bear  flowers  of  showy  hues,  many  of  the 
vines  that  climb  up  to  the  highest  branches 
are  masses  of  red  and  purple,  orchids  fasten 
themselves  upon  every  crevice,  and  so  the 
vividness  and  variety  of  color  become  almost 
as  great  a  marvel  as  the  rank  prodigality  of 
growth.  If  you  could  penetrate  a  little  into 
the  forest,  it  would  be  still  more  illuminated 
by  the  brilliancy  of  birds  whose  kinds  are 
listed  by  hundreds  in  books.  You  catch  occa- 

83 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

sional  glimpses  of  movement;  but  unless  it 
be  a  blackbird  you  could  rarely  make  out  the 
cause.  It  might  be  a  parrot,  an  oriole,  or  a 
jay,  all  of  which  are  so  numerous  that  a 
census  has  never  been  taken,  though  being  a 
little  less  impudent  than  the  blackbirds  they 
are  more  difficult  to  observe.  As  for  the 
sounds,  they  are  myriad  and  unending.  In- 
sects, frogs,  perhaps  monkeys,  and  no  doubt 
scores  of  creatures  that  you  never  heard  be- 
fore mingle  their  cries  in  a  babel  that  neither 
the  guide-book  nor  your  well-informed  neigh- 
bor can  help  you  to  analyze. 

To  calculating  discernment  all  this  is  a 
challenge.  Mahogany  trees,  five  or  six  feet 
thick,  dye  woods  and  medicinal  plants,  lus- 
cious fruits  and  excellent  oils  are  here  in  the 
jungle.  Here  is  fertility  to  yield  the  food  of 
millions,  here  are  riches  to  reward  the  labor, 
the  enterprise,  and  the  prophetic  vision  of 
many  a  bold  spirit.  The  instinctive  feeling, 
however,  is  not  unmixed  with  something 
like  horror.  One  sees  a  riot  of  soft  but 
malignant  forms,  of  silent  but  powerful  and 
malign  forces.  Our  fine  ecstasies  about  virgin 
Nature  were  mostly  written  in  temperate  or 
semi-arid  places  where  Nature  is  self-dis- 

84 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

ciplined.  Here  is  no  exclusive  survival  of 
the  fittest  but  an  indiscriminate  and  revolting 
survival  of  everything  that  mere  fecundity 
can  engender  and  fatten.  Individuality,  char- 
acter, symbolism,  as  we  ascribe  them  to  out- 
door objects  at  home,  are  foreign  to  this  mass 
of  vegetables.  Here  are  no  tongues  in  trees, 
nor  books  in  the  running  brooks.  The  axe 
and  the  bush  hook  one  thinks  of  without  dis- 
may. It  only  seems  that  axe  and  bush  hook 
could  make  little  impression.  "Railroaders" 
take  dynamite  to  any  ironwood  trees  in  their 
path.  A  good  conservationist  at  home,  I 
caught  myself  drawing  an  eager  breath  on 
seeing  a  little  forest  fire,  then  settling  back 
in  quick  disappointment  at  the  certainty  that 
the  fire  could  not  spread  much.  Every  clear- 
ing around  a  native  hut  becomes  as  welcome 
as  an  oasis  in  a  desert,  and  when  you  finally 
emerge  at  Juile  into  broad  fields  where  cattle 
graze  in  numbers,  they  are  as  beautiful  as 
asphodel  meadows  to  a  returned  traveler 
from  the  Shades. 

It  will  be  night  again  when  Coatzacoalcos, 
or  Puerto  Mexico  by  its  new  name,  is 
reached.  Another  night  in  another  hotel 
conducted  by  an  American  and  owned  by 

85 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

"the  Pearsons,"  another  day  in  surveying  a 
harbor  and  its  equipment,  less  remarkable 
here  than  at  Salina  Cruz  because  the  mouth 
of  the  Coatzacoaleos  River  offered  some  nat- 
ural advantage,  another  impression  of  a  town 
that  is  neither  Mexican  nor  American  nor 
English  nor  a  composite  of  its  discoverable 
elements,  and  in  which  women  seem  to  be  as 
scarce  as  in  Tehuantepec  they  are  super- 
numerary, and  you  have  completed  your  Isth- 
mian observation,  you  think. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  miles  farther  down 
the  Isthmus  toward  Yucatan  and  Central 
America,  at  Frontera,  still  another  artificial 
harbor  is  projected,  this  time  by  dredging  a 
canal  from  the  Grijalva  River  near  its  mouth 
to  a  quiet  bay  a  mile  distant.  But  we  shall 
not  visit  Frontera. 

Cortez  foresaw  that  across  this  narrow  sep- 
aration between  the  two  oceans,  where  the 
mountain  range  breaks  down  low,  would  pass 
a  great  highway  for  the  world's  trade.  He 
so  wrote  of  it.  Humboldt  called  it  "the 
bridge  of  the  world's  commerce."  As  early 
as  1774  a  Spanish  engineer  declared  his  be- 
lief in  the  feasibility  of  the  canal  idea.  About 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  those 

86 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

opportunists,  the  '49  -  ers,  on  their  way  to 
California  gold  fields,  without  waiting  for 
canal  or  railroad,  went  across  by  scores,  the 
Spaniards  having  long  before  built  a  coach 
road  from  one  ocean  to  the  other.  An  old 
stage  driver  who  took  many  of  the  miners 
over  was  still  living,  I  was  told,  in  1905.  The 
American  gold  coins  in  the  necklace  of  a 
Tehuana  belle,  if  they  do  not  date  back  to 
the  '50's,  may  represent  a  preference  that 
grew  up  then.  An  American  engineer  named 
Eads  once  had  a  concession  from  the  Mexi- 
can government  to  construct  a  "ship  rail- 
way," whatever  that  may  have  meant,  but 
could  not  raise  capital  for  it.  It  was  a  Brit- 
ish firm,  S.  Pearson  and  Son,  builders  of  the 
harbors  at  Vera  Cruz,  Salina  Cruz,  Coatza- 
coalcos,  and  elsewhere,  who  finally  constructed 
the  railroad,  the  government  at  first  paying  a 
fixed  sum  for  each  unit  of  work  but  after- 
ward entering  into  a  joint  partnership  with 
the  Pearsons,  which  is  to  hold  till  1953.  Sir 
Weetman  Pearson,  president  of  the  company, 
is  now  planning  to  build  a  railroad  from  Mex- 
ico City  to  Puebla,  reaching  snow  line  on 
Popocatepetl  at  14,000  feet  and  with  a  branch 
to  the  peak  about  4000  feet  higher.  It  will 

87 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

enable  one  to  go  from  Mexico  City  to  the 
peak  of  "Popo"  in  two  hours,  leaving  balmy 
air  and  a  temperature  generally  of  75  to  80 
degrees  and  reaching  one  often  as  low  as  20 
degrees  below  zero.  Americans  are  not  the 
only  bold  projectors.  Americans,  however, 
have  not  ceased  to  be  prominent  in  the  Te- 
huantepec  region.  There  are  abandoned  plan- 
tations and  abandoned  home  sites  well  dis- 
tributed along  both  the  Isthmian  railroad 
proper  and  the  Vera  Cruz  al  Istmo  route, 
which  represent  the  utterly  foolish  investment 
of  American  money,  generally  brought  about 
by  ignorant  and  unscrupulous  American  pro- 
motion. I  could  learn,  for  example,  of  only 
one  rubber  plantation  in  which  stock  has  been 
offered  for  sale  that  has  a  prospect  of  even 
moderate  returns ;  and  my  informants  ascribed 
this  exception  more  to  luck  than  to  com- 
petence of  the  prime  movers,  who  were  inex- 
perienced. Many  plantations  and  private 
"home  sites"  not  yet  abandoned  ought  to  be 
and  will  be.  Every  one  at  Santa  Lucrecia 
treated  the  matter  either  as  a  huge  joke  or  as 
a  great  pity.  Missionaries  in  Mexico  City 
afterward  told  me  of  helping  families  to  pay 
their  way  back  home,  and  urged  that  some 

88 


TEHUANTEPEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

general  warning  be  given.  The  objection  to 
any  general  warning  is  that  there  are  possibil- 
ities in  the  region  for  the  right  type  of  settler 
acting  under  the  right  advice.  The  American 
Consul- General,  when  appealed  to,  said  in 
effect  that  he  had  often  had  these  matters 
brought  to  his  attention,  but  any  consular 
officer  is  powerless  to  help,  as  the  State  De- 
partment does  not  authorize  our  representa- 
tives to  offer  opinions  regarding  particular 
business  undertakings.  From  a  source  of  the 
highest  competence  I  obtained  this  advice: 
"Refer  people  through  their  banks  to  Dun's 
and  Bradstreet's,  but  let  them  say  that  they 
are  interested  only  incidentally  in  the  financial 
rating  of  the  agents  or  promoters  in  the 
United  States.  What  they  need  is  a  thorough 
special  report  on  the  conditions  of  the  planta- 
tion or  other  enterprise  itself."  One  of  the 
most  absurd  things  is  the  way  in  which  inex- 
perienced persons  make  a  tour  under  the  con- 
duct of  some  agent,  as  a  party  were  doing  in 
our  train,  and  flatter  themselves  that  they 
have  investigated.  They  take  for  rubber 
plants  a  kind  of  glassy-leaved  tree  that  is  as 
worthless  as  mullein  stalks.  They  miscalcu- 
late the  healthrulness  of  climate,  the  number 

89 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  years  necessary  to  raise  a  crop,  the  cost 
and  availability  of  labor,  the  time  involved  in 
transporting  perishable  fruits — any  one  of  a 
dozen  factors  that  are  vital. 

Making  any  of  these  blunders,  a  man  is 
likely  to  profit  little  by  the  general  fact  that 
Mexico  as  a  whole  yields  annually  two  hun- 
dred million  dollars'  worth  of  farm  products 
and  that  scarcely  a  hundredth  part  of  her 
arable  land  is  yet  under  cultivation.  Some 
day  vast  regions  in  northern  Mexico  will  be 
irrigated  and  reclaimed  as  California,  Colo- 
rado, Texas,  and  Nevada  so  largely  have 
been;  but  during  the  process  many  a  too  in- 
cautious person  may  lose  all  he  has.  The 
right  Americans  to  invest  in  Mexican  enter- 
prises are  either  those  who  are  prepared  for 
wild  speculative  chances  or  those  who  know 
what  they  are  about. 

Your  Isthmian  impressions  are  after  all 
not  quite  finished,  for  as  you  climb  the  grad- 
ual slope  in  the  evening  train,  lights  will  glim- 
mer with  lowly  human  kindness  from  behind 
screens  that  in  daytime  your  vision  did  not 
penetrate,  and  will  mean  something  domestic, 
something  that  is  comfortable  to  think  about. 
After  all,  men  do  live  here  where  only  reptiles 

90 


TEHUANTEFEC    AND    THE    JUNGLE 

might  be  thought  to  have  a  place,  and  some- 
how they  shape  life  to  its  environment.  The 
environment  will  yield  also  to  them,  and  who 
knows  of  what  they  may  be  the  forerunners? 
You  can  grapple  with  the  thought  of  the 
jungle  better  now  in  the  soothing  dark,  and 
to-morrow  you  will  not  regard  it  with  your 
first  abhorrence.  You  will  again  see  it  preg- 
nant with  great  values  for  time  to  come. 


VII 

OAXACA 

STILL  back  over  your  course  as  far  as 
Santa  Lucrecia,  then  north,  that  is  par- 
allel to  the  coast,  which  is  to  say  west, 
two  hundred  miles  to  Cordova,  and  again  you 
touch  the  route  that  you  might  have  taken  at 
once  from  Vera  Cruz  to  Mexico  City.  But 
still  you  are  not  ready  to  follow  it.  You  are 
bound  for  the  city  of  Oaxaca,  the  capital  of 
the  state  in  which  you  have  been  for  several 
days,  and  then  to  Mitla,  the  place  of  ruins. 
At  one  time  you  were  within  seventy-five 
miles  if  you  could  have  struck  across  country ; 
but  the  trail  would  have  led  through  formid- 
able  mountains,  where  the  Indians  are  of  un- 
certain temper  toward  strangers,  and  you 
could  have  saved  nothing  in  time,  nor  in 
money  after  guide  and  mules  were  paid  for. 
So  you  make  this  circuit  of  more  than  four 
hundred  miles  over  three  railroads,  through 
two  states  besides  the  one  that  you  have  left 
and  into  which  you  will  return. 

92 


OAXACA 

A  night  in  Tehuacan,  whose  bottled  water 
has  made  you  familiar  with  the  name  in  ad- 
vance, will  give  you  a  taste  of  perfect  climate 
and  a  view  of  Mexicans  at  a  health  resort. 
The  hotel  has  decorations  that  would  cost 
more  in  New  York  than  the  whole  establish- 
ment is  worth.  You  walk  out  into  the  coun- 
try about  sundown  and  see  women  washing 
clothes  but  find  no  evidence  that  their  own,  or 
they  themselves,  were  ever  washed.  The  swift 
streams  rush  along  with  water  enough  to 
cleanse  a  multitude,  through  the  clean,  hard 
banks  that  they  have  lined  with  their  calcium 
deposit;  but  people  and  houses  look  as  if  the 
water  had  brought  none  of  its  ministries  to 
them.  Is  this  merely  one  of  the  unaccountable 
variations  of  custom,  or  partly  explained  by 
the  disheartening  amount  of  dust  that  flies 
about,  so  that  cleanness  would  be  but  a  mo- 
mentary state  at  best?  I  remember  speculat- 
ing about  this  at  El  Riego,  a  mile  or  so  out; 
I  remember  as  I  returned  seeing  two  soldiers, 
one  reading  to  the  other,  under  a  palmetto 
tree;  I  remember  the  mountains  at  sunset; 
and  I  remember  the  heavy,  fragrant  white 
flower  that  dropped  on  the  pavement  under  my 
window  at  night  with  a  sound  like  that  of  a 

93 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

banana  peel.    So  much  I  remember  of  Tehua- 
can. 

Oaxaca  has  40,000  inhabitants,  which  is  to 
say  that  it  is  as  large  as  the  old  Massachusetts 
town  of  Salem.  It  is  older  by  a  hundred  and 
forty  years — older  than  St.  Augustine  by 
more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century.  It 
has  been  the  scene  of  many  battles,  from  when 
the  Mixtec  and  Zapotec  Indians  made  stand 
after  stand  against  Cortez,  the  future  Mar- 
quis of  Oaxaca,  to  the  times  of  Hidalgo, 
Juarez,  and  their  successors.  Such  opposi- 
tion did  the  Spaniards  encounter  here  on  their 
first  visit  that  they  withdrew  till  a  year  later, 
in  1522,  when  Montezuma  had  fallen  and  his 
capital,  Tenochtitlan,  was  in  their  hands. 
Then  they  subdued  the  place  by  the  aid  of 
great  numbers  of  native  allies.  The  inhab- 
itants of  the  region  were  largely  an  agricul- 
tural people,  though  the  city  itself  had  grown 
important  because  of  the  presence  of  gold  in 
rich  deposits.  It  was  on  account  of  the  gold 
that  Cortez  chose  this  as  the  seat  of  his  do- 
main and  had  himself  created  Marquis  of 
Oaxaca  by  the  Spanish  crown.  As  for  the 
gold,  the  conquistador es  were  not  wholly  dis- 
appointed, though  their  dreams  were  beyond 

94 


OAXACA 

realization.  As  to  the  people,  while  the  city 
has  always  remained  a  stronghold  of  Roman- 
ism and  often  of  political  reaction,  it  has  also 
been  a  center  of  political  agitation  whenever 
any  new  impulse  was  astir  anywhere  in  the 
country.  Even  to-day  there  are  Indians  com- 
ing in  to  sell  their  wares  at  the  Oaxaca  mar- 
ket who  have  never  acknowledged  the  author- 
ity of  a  foreign  ruler. 

The  cochineal  industry  originated  here  and 
spread  hence  to  Central  America,  then  to  the 
Canary  Islands  and  elsewhere.  The  Indians 
of  Oaxaca  had  used  the  brilliant  and  perma- 
nent scarlet  dye  to  color  their  sarapes,  prob- 
ably for  centuries,  without  discovering  that 
they  were  indebted  to  a  minute  insect  which 
feeds  on  certain  species  of  cactus.  They 
thought  that  they  were  baking  or  boiling  a 
natural  product  of  the  plant  itself.  How- 
ever, they  were  perfectly  familiar  with  its 
virtues,  as  they  were  with  those  of  many  of 
the  native  dye  woods.  Here  are  still  to  be 
bought  the  best  Indian  blankets  in  the  repub- 
lic, of  either  wool  or  cotton,  dyed  with  vege- 
table colors,  though  one  needs  to  guard 
against  aniline  and  other  delusions.  The 
Oaxaca  market,  be  it  here  said,  is  as  charac- 

95 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

teristic  as  any  in  Mexico ;  and  as  becomes  the 
market  in  one  of  the  best  Roman  Catholic 
towns  of  a  Spanish  country,  it  is  at  its  live- 
liest on  Sunday. 

Oaxaca  nestles,  as  do  many  cities  of  the 
Mexican  plateau,  among  mountains  that  give 
a  noble  frame  and  background  to  every  pic- 
ture. There  is  no  vista  without  a  church 
dome;  and  churches  and  houses  alike  have  an 
appearance  not  only  of  age  but  of  permanence 
that  is  satisfying.  The  houses  are  all  made  of 
the  heaviest  construction  to  survive  earth- 
quakes. I  saw  one  of  adobe  that  has  been 
standing  since  1660.  Solidity  is  the  keynote, 
in  aqueducts,  houses,  churches,  ever)Twhere. 
The  ancient-looking  ox  carts  with  their  pon- 
derous wooden  wheels,  and  the  rough  cobbled 
pavements  over  which  they  move  so  lazily  all 
express  it.  The  native  men  and  women  are 
types  of  it.  One  has  difficulty  to  conceive  that 
anything  at  Oaxaca  ever  changed.  The  cli- 
mate never  does — it  is  almost  perfectly  equa- 
ble, and  thoroughly  delightful. 

There  is  an  amazingly  rich  old  church, 
Santo  Domingo,  once  larger  with  its  acces- 
sory buildings  than  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  where 
young  Porfirio  Diaz  dangled  down  upon  a 

96 


rope  to  the  window  of  his  former  teacher's 
prison  cell — one  of  many  exploits  in  the  career 
of  this  daring  and  resourceful  man.  He,  like 
Juarez,  was  a  native  of  the  city. 

As  striking  as  any  architectural  feature  are 
the  massive  and  extensive  portales,  which  face 
the  Zocalo  and,  with  the  cathedral,  give  satis- 
fying dignity  to  it.  They  harbor,  within  doors 
and  without,  the  busiest  mercantile  activities 
of  the  city,  and  make  part  of  a  picture  which 
could  not  seem  much  more  remote  than  it  does 
from  any  twentieth-century  part  of  the  world. 
Having  left  my  hat  in  one  of  the  shops  to  be 
cleaned  after  a  dusty  ride,  I  ventured  bare- 
headed among  the  venders,  public  letter- 
writers,  idlers,  and  passers-by,  in  search  of  a 
boot-black.  When  I  found  him,  his  first  im- 
pudent, astonishing  words  were:  "Where's 
your  hat,  Mister?  You'd  better  look  out  or 
they'll  arrest  you  and  send  you  into  the 
army."  I  told  him  they'd  have  to  send  me 
into  the  American  army,  and  asked  where  he 
had  learned  my  language  so  well.  It  de- 
veloped that  he  had  beaten  his  way  to  New 
York  a  year  or  two  before  and  had  spent  sev- 
eral months  there  in  the  "shine"  business.  He 
was  about  fifteen  years  old. 

97 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

The  cathedral  stands  where  the  Zocalo  and 
the  Alameda,  both  rectangles,  touch  at  a  cor- 
ner, so  that  it  has  beautifully  shaded  park  both 
in  front  and  on  one  side  and  is  itself  the  cen- 
tral figure  of  the  whole  scheme.  It  has  at 
least  one  delightful  aspect,  that  of  the  facade 
from  the  plaza  opposite.  Particularly  in  the 
evening,  this  view  is  one  of  melting  loveliness. 
The  soft  creamy  or  greenish  hues  of  a  native 
stone,  the  somewhat  decayed  surfaces,  the 
angles  softened  by  wear,  are  all  more  beauti- 
ful than  they  can  have  been  when  the  builders 
left  them,  though  the  front  must  always  have 
been  one  of  singular  beauty.  Within  are  two 
or  three  noted  paintings  by  native  artists ;  but 
often  I  have  not  found  Mexican  churches 
favorable  places  for  looking  at  pictures,  and 
this  cathedral  with  its  warm  tones  and  gentle 
outlines  is  a  sweeter  picture  than  any  that  it 
houses. 

On  one  of  the  high,  surrounding  hills,  what 
appear  from  the  hotel  windows  to  be  several 
natural  mounds  are  in  fact  part  of  the  ruins 
of  Monte  Alban,  to  be  reached  by  three  hours' 
horseback  ride  and  worthy  of  a  visit  by  any 
one  of  antiquarian  interests.  They  ma)'  be 
older  than  the  ruins  of  Yucatan  and  are  cer- 

98 


OAXACA 

tainly  much  older  than  those  of  Mitla,  which 
nearly  every  visitor  to  the  region  sees.  They 
are  also  more  accessible. 

An  excursion  that  is  recommended,  though 
I  never  went  so  far,  is  one  eastward  beyond 
Mitla  to  the  summit  of  Zempoaltepec,  about 
12,000  feet  high.  The  panorama  of  moun- 
tains, forests,  tropic  lands,  and  opposite 
oceans — the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  east  and 
the  Pacific  on  the  west — is  said  not  to  be 
equaled  from  many  points  in  the  world. 
While  lamenting  that  we  cannot  go  out  for 
the  ascent,  we  may  stretch  our  thoughts  to  it 
from  having  been  so  breathlessly  near  going. 
Another  time,  perhaps! 


99 


VIII 

TO   MITLA   AND   BACK 

MITLA,  about  twenty-five  miles  from 
Oaxaca,  is  the  most  famous  place  of 
ruins  in  all  Mexico.  Soon  it  will  be 
reached  by  railroad;  but  I  am  glad  that  for 
me  it  was  still  necessary  to  take  a  coach. 
Three  horses  were  driven  abreast  and  a  change 
was  made  at  Tlacolula.  There  I  saw  the  cere- 
mony of  hand-kissing  performed  with  as  much 
gravity  between  friends  on  the  street  as 
though  each  withered  and  ragged  crone  were 
a  duchess.  It  was  always  the  older  person 
that  was  thus  reverenced  by  the  younger.  At 
Tlacolula,  too,  I  entered  an  old  church  where 
the  guide-book  said  nothing  was  of  interest, 
and  did,  it  is  true,  find  the  interior  being  done 
over  in  lurid  vulgarity  and  furnished  with 
images,  the  hideous  crudity  of  which  seems 
blasphemous  to  a  heretic  eye;  but  I  found  also 
some  old  pictures,  the  canvas  breaking 
through  but  the  colors  as  rich  as  when  the 
brush  left  them,  and  the  whole  effulgent  still 

100 


TO    MITLA    AND    BACK 

with  the  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land. 
It  is  not  worth  while  to  ask  the  name  of  the 
artist,  he  was  a  native  and  a  copyist — all  art- 
ists are  copyists — and  there  have  been  many 
like  him  in  Mexico;  but  he  belonged  to  the 
school  of  those  who  mix  more  than  "brains" 
with  their  colors — who  mix  in  tears  and 
ecstasy,  who,  seeing  the  invisible,  have  the  art 
to  make  some  hint  of  it  appear. 

At  another  little  village,  sooner  reached 
than  Tlacolula,  in  fact,  is  one  of  the  largest 
and  oldest  trees  on  earth.  A  new  lettuce  is 
no  fresher  than  the  big  cypress  tree  of  Tule, 
with  its  girth  of  160  feet,  and  its  height,  rela- 
tively small,  of  160  to  175  feet.  Cortez  rested 
under  it  and  so  wondered  at  its  vastness  that 
he  made  record  of  it.  Humboldt,  as  late  as 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  carved  a 
legend  to  distinguish  it,  and  it  has  grown 
calmly  on  till  this  decoration  is  nearly  em- 
bedded. There  are  other  great  trees  of  the 
same  species  near;  but  none  approaches  this 
in  size. 

Every  lane  in  Tule  is  hedged  in  with  the 
organ  cactus  which  stands  like  elongated 
prickly  cucumbers  on  end,  giving  a  strange 
aspect  to  the  irregular  streets.  The  houses 

101 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

are  thatched  and  surrounded  by  fruit  trees 
and  flowering  plants.  The  inhabitants,  long 
accustomed  to  watch  the  stranger  go  by,  have 
never  adopted  his  ways.  A  woman  clothed 
only  from  her  waist  down  disappeared  on  our 
approach,  but  not  in  confusion.  Children  did 
not  disappear  at  all,  but  stood  unashamed, 
asking  for  centavos.  Men  working  over  their 
sandals  or  their  wooden  plows  hardly  lifted  a 
glance.  From  within  the  bamboo  huts  came 
the  spatting  sound  with  which  Indian  wives 
have  always  beaten  their  corn  paste  between 
their  hands  into  thin  cakes  for  cooking.  While 
tortillas  are  now  made  in  the  larger  towns  by 
machinery,  yet  this  immemorial  patter  an- 
nounces dinner  time  to-day  in  every  Mexican 
village. 

The  road  from  Oaxaca  to  Mitla  is  wide 
enough  for  four  coaches  to  drive  abreast.  It 
might  remind  one  of  Charles  Lamb's  remark 
about  a  certain  man's  taste — so  much  of  it 
and  all  so  bad!  Along  it  go  in  procession  the 
centuries  from  Homer's  day  to  that  of  Sancho 
Panza,  but  never  anything  of  later  style,  ex- 
cept the  occasional  tourist  from  foreign  lands 
who  recognizes  in  himself  a  thing  forced,  un- 
natural, grotesque.  He  passes  like  a  comet 

10$ 


TO    MITLA    AND    BACK 

through  serene  skies,  save  that  he  must  pass  in 
a  borrowed  vehicle;  and  serenity  will  return 
when  he  is  gone.  The  crooked  stick  that 
served  for  a  plow  in  Egypt  and  India  will 
move  along  in  its  furrow,  the  oxen  trudging 
before  it;  the  carts  will  creak  along  the  high- 
way; the  donkeys  with  skin  bottles  puffing  on 
either  side  will  patter  on;  and  the  blue  sky 
will  arch  over  them  all,  unruffled. 

An  hacienda  with  its  old  house  covering  an 
acre,  the  walls  four  feet  thick,  is  the  refuge 
and  headquarters  of  tired  and  dusty  aliens  in 
Mitla.  The  world  is  all  within  the  court  you 
enter.  Grated  windows,  doors  three  inches 
through,  locks  that  some  blacksmith  made  in 
1690  or  thereabouts — everything  in  the  place 
has  been  quieted  by  the  caress  of  age.  But 
travel  out  through  the  rather  squalid  village 
to  the  monuments  you  have  come  to  see,  and 
again  you  are  reminded  that  age  is  relative. 
Not  so  old  as  Uxmal  with  its  strange  animal 
figures,  not  so  old  as  Monte  Alban  with  its 
picture  writing,  capable  now  of  being  repaired 
for  centuries  of  their  original  use  if  any  one 
knew  and  cared  to  perpetuate  it,  yet  old 
enough  to  be  stripped  of  history  and  free  from 
ascriptions  of  origin,  these  ruins  are  a  contra- 

103 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

diction  and  an  astonishment.  They  are  not 
moss-grown,  for  moss  does  not  grow  here. 
Trees  and  shrubs  have  not  veiled  and  claimed 
them  again  to  an  identity  with  nature,  for 
only  the  cactus  is  at  home  on  these  plains  and 
slopes.  Storm  and  earthquake  have  won  no 
compromise  of  their  erectness  and  rectilinear 
power,  for  they  were  built  to  defy  storm  and 
earthquake.  Even  the  character  of  their 
decoration  is  such  as  to  set  them  farthest  from 
any  hint  of  natural  objects — not  only  is  it 
geometric  as  distinguished  from  the  repre- 
sentation of  plants  and  animal  forms,  but  its 
designs  are  worked  out  in  straight  lines.  If 
ever  architecture  spoke,  these  massive  halls 
upon  the  high  ground  of  Mitla  speak  for 
their  builders,  "Behold  we  were  men,  and  this 
work  was  our  work,  not  a  thing  of  chance  or 
growth;  and  this  our  work  was  greatly  done, 
done  after  a  fashion  of  our  devising,  done  to 
remain."  It  is  estimated  that  a  million  tiles, 
or  more  properly  flat  stones,  went  into  the 
walls  of  Mitla  thus  far  uncovered.  They  con- 
stitute a  mosaic  that  differs  from  the  ordinary 
because  the  stones  are  set  on  edge,  and  by 
their  inequalities  of  width,  projecting  one  be- 
yond another,  form  the  design  in  relief.  Door- 

104 


TO    MITLA    AND    BACK 

ways  are  not  arched — a  curved  arch,  even  if 
they  knew  it,  would  ill  have  fitted  the  style  of 
these  builders;  but  great  stones  from  fifteen 
to  eighteen  feet  long,  five  feet  wide,  and  four 
feet  thick  were  placed  as  lintels  and  then  the 
same  deep  intricate  design  was  unflinchingly 
carved  upon  them.  The  walls  were  so  well 
laid,  for  the  most  part  without  mortar,  that 
each  stone  is  perfectly  firm  in  its  original 
place  and  only  curious  examination  discovers, 
even  to-day,  where  carving  leaves  off  and 
mosaic  begins. 

There  are  several  great  halls,  one  called  the 
hall  of  monoliths,  where  are  six  columns  of 
porphyry,  fourteen  feet  high  and  about  seven 
in  circumference,  having  neither  capital  nor 
pedestal  but  tapered  and  rounded  toward  the 
top  in  a  way  that  shows  artistic  thought,  and 
is  as  much  a  departure  from  straightness  as 
this  peculiar  style  would  warrant. 

A  little  of  the  colored  decoration  that  re- 
mains where  pious  Roman  priests  formerly 
stabled  their  horses,  shows,  strangely  enough, 
grotesque  heads.  The  heads  give  to  some 
the  impression  of  being  grotesque  not  because 
of  incapacity  to  make  them  otherwise  but 
from  conscious  design. 

105 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

The  ruins  of  Mitla  are  large  enough  to  be 
those  of  a  city,  yet  are  not  those  of  a  city. 
They  may  have  been  related  to  one  as  the  old 
castle  to  its  village,  or  they  may  have  been 
only  temples  or  tombs.  Whatever  the  pur- 
pose for  which  they  were  built,  the  men  who 
built  them  in  their  geometric  perfection  must 
have  done  much  else  that  would  be  worthy  of 
attention  if  known.  To  have  looked  at  their 
handiwork  is  to  have  faced  the  riddle  of  the 
ages. 

Leave  Mitla,  imagine  your  way  retraced  to 
where  you  left  the  axis  between  Vera  Cruz 
and  Mexico,  and  proceed  at  last  toward  the 
capital.  Orizaba  is  the  first  considerable 
town,  girt  around  with  high  mountains,  well 
wooded.  A  coffee  center  and  the  capital  of 
the  cotton-weaving  industry  in  Mexico,  it  is 
best  remembered  merely  as  a  beautiful  hill 
town,  the  first  up  from  Vera  Cruz  in  which 
fever  is  practically  unknown,  the  natural  first 
station  on  the  journey  upward.  Here  the 
European  allies  in  1862  by  consent  of  Juarez 
made  their  first  headquarters. 

Up  from  Orizaba,  with  its  altitude  of  4000 
feet,  round  the  famous  Maltrata  curve,  still 
winding  steeply  up,  never  down,  at  every  vil- 

106 


TO    MITLA    AND    BACK 

lage  buying  fruit  and  baskets  of  intoxica- 
tingly  fragrant  gardenias  from  women  and 
girls  as  dark  and  comely  as  Ruth  or  Rebecca, 
and  at  a  distance  of  173  kilometers  (110 
miles)  from  Vera  Cruz  we  shall  find  ourselves 
on  the  level  of  the  great  plateau.  As  we 
turn  again  and  again  up  the  incline,  villages 
and  farms  spread  like  little  gardens  far  below 
us ;  and  all  has  a  look  quite  different  from  that 
in  the  jungle,  of  having  been  long  subdued 
to  human  use.  Every  path  has  been  beaten 
for  centuries  by  the  sandaled  or  naked  feet 
of  men  and  women  not  belonging  to  our  race, 
but  seeming  far  nearer  kin  to  us  now  as  we 
look  thus  upon  their  homes  and  haunts  than 
we  had  ever  before  felt  them.  We  find  our- 
selves in  a  critical  state  of  mind,  not  toward 
the  primitive  life  that  has  been  lived  here, 
but  toward  our  own.  It  seems  a  pity  that, 
while  learning  a  few  things  of  undoubted  ad- 
vantage, we  should  have  learned  so  many 
tending  only  to  complication  and  unnatural- 
ness. 

As  the  elevation  increases  and  the  air  grows 
colder,  the  Mexican  blanket  is  more  and  more 
in  evidence.  The  statuesque  gives  way  to  the 
picturesque,  and  the  beauty  and  grace  of 

107 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

nature  little  trammeled  or  adorned  to  the  dig- 
nity and  the  humor  of  umber  figures  bedecked 
in  high  colors  and  draped  with  the  pride  of 
grandees. 

On  across  the  plain,  all  afternoon,  passing 
the  great  prehistoric  pyramids  of  the  sun  and 
moon  at  San  Juan  Teotihuacan,  which  I  have 
seen  many  a  time  from  car  windows,  and  think 
of  as  old  friends  though  I  never  stopped  to 
visit  them,  and  so  at  evening  we  shall  arrive 
at  Mexico  City,  a  little  giddy  from  the  alti- 
tude, it  may  be,  a  little  bewildered  by  kalei- 
doscopic changes,  but  with  a  feeling  of  enrich- 
ment from  the  experiences  of  the  day. 


108 


IX 

MEXICO   CITY 

THE  mingled  sounds  of  hoofs  upon  as- 
phalt, of  street  cars,  of  automobiles  de- 
manding the  right  of  way,  and  of  many 
human  feet  and  voices,  the  downward  swoop 
of  an  elevator,  and  then  the  smell  of  "coffee 
and  cut  roses"  triumphing  over  that  of  fresh 
ink  on  your  newspaper — all  these  that  you 
experience  at  the  beginning  of  your  first  day 
in  Mexico  City  do  not  give  any  overwhelming 
sense  of  being  swung  out  into  far  places  or  of 
being  projected  backward  into  the  sixteenth 
century.  This  Mexican  Herald  has  tele- 
graphic columns  as  long  as  those  of  the 
"daily"  at  home  and  editorials  written  in  Eng- 
lish as  familiar. 

Though  it  may  have  been  two  or  three 
weeks  since  you  landed  in  Vera  Cruz,  prob- 
ably the  tall  American  with  the  long  nose  or 
some  equally  remembered  fellow-passenger 
will  be  sitting  within  reach  of  a  nod;  and 

109 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

there  will  be  also  some  of  last  night's  "ar- 
rivals" who  will  tell  you,  if  you  ask,  that  they 
were  just  four  days  coming  from  Buffalo  or 
three  from  St.  Louis,  with  Pullman  and  din- 
ing car  service  all  the  way.  This  is  rather  start- 
ling but  is  only  a  prophecy  of  what  will  soon 
be  accomplished  as  far  as  Guatemala  and  be- 
yond. Already  tolerable  trains  run  from 
Gamboa  on  the  Tehuantepec  line,  southward 
to  the  Guatemalan  border.  The  Pan-Amer- 
ican system  which  was  the  dream  of  James  G. 
Elaine  will  be  in  operation,  possibly  within 
fifteen  years,  from  New  York  to  the  great 
ports  of  South  America. 

You  are  at  an  American  hotel.  If  you  were 
a  German  or  a  Frenchman  you  would  be  at  a 
German  or  a  French  hotel  and  would  find 
things  as  little  foreign  to  you  as  everything 
here  seems  to  American  observation.  You 
would  still  be  reading  your  newspaper  in  Eng- 
lish, it  is  likely,  but  for  Germans  and  French- 
men in  Mexico  English  ceases  to  be  a  strange 
tongue.  In  short,  you  are  in  a  cosmopolitan 
city.  The  American  population  alone  is  esti- 
mated at  7000.  Then  there  are  the  English 
and  the  English-speaking  Germans  and 
French  alluded  to  just  now,  and  it  would  be 

110 


MEXICO    CITY 

hard  to  say  how  many  English-speaking 
Mexicans.  On  the  principal  business  streets 
and  in  business  hours  English  is  heard  more 
than  Spanish,  and  more  than  any  other  lan- 
guage whatsoever,  though  man  spricht 
Deutsch  and  parle  Francois  also  with  such 
frequency  as  to  denote  that  other  than  Amer- 
ican enterprise  is  at  work. 

No  city  is  the  center  of  the  United  States 
as  Mexico  City  is  that  of  the  Mexican  repub- 
lic ;  it  is  metropolis,  political  and  financial  cap- 
ital, chief  seat  of  learning,  publishing  center, 
travel  center,  and  heart  of  the  nation  in  al- 
most every  organic  way  that  can  be  thought 
of.  Every  one  who  lives  or  even  winters  in 
the  republic  comes  to  "the  City"  from  time 
to  time.  Paradoxically  enough,  it  is  one  of 
the  least  Mexican  of  all  places  in  Mexico.  It 
is  no  place  in  which  to  make  any  detailed  first- 
hand study  of  character  and  conditions.  One 
may,  however,  do  much  generalizing  here,  and 
profit  much  by  the  knowledge  and  observation 
of  others. 

London  and  New  York,  cosmopolitan  as 
they  are,  have  each  their  marks  of  nationality, 
so  that  a  traveler  awaking  in  one  would  hard- 
ly fancy  himself  in  the  other.  There  are  so 

111 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

many  Germans,  Frenchmen,  and  Americans 
in  London,  all  wearing  clothes  conformed 
to  a  world  pattern,  and  so  many  Ger- 
mans, Frenchmen,  and  Englishmen  in  New 
York,  all  similarly  conformed,  that  an 
off-hand  analysis  of  the  human  stream  on 
a  busy  thoroughfare  might  give  no  clue;  but 
there  are  always  signs  at  hand.  The  hack- 
man  in  New  York  is  a  different  figure  from 
the  London  "cabby,"  the  policeman  on  Fifth 
Avenue  and  the  "bobby"  on  Pall  Mall  do  not 
look  alike,  the  New  York  "sky-scraper"  may 
be  suggested  by  individual  buildings  elsewhere 
but  is  dominant  in  the  view  of  no  city  out- 
side of  the  United  States.  Similarly,  in  Mex- 
ico City,  everything  official,  or  institutional, 
or  architectural,  is  Mexican  on  its  face.  South 
America,  Spain,  Palestine,  would  show  like- 
nesses; but  I  am  indicating  that  cosmopolitan 
appearance  and  international  resemblance  dis- 
solve under  close  examination.  There  are 
taxicabs;  but  if  a  taxicab  from  Mexico  City, 
driver  and  all,  could  pass  through  New  York, 
it  would  be  gazed  at,  even  in  that  blase  me- 
tropolis, from  Battery  Park  to  Harlem.  The 
street  cars  are  of  a  familiar  enough  model, 
built  in  the  United  States.  It  is  one  of  the 


MEXICO    CITY 

first  facts  learned  that,  if  not  under  American 
control,  they  are  under  English,  and  so 
equally  far  from  promising  any  Mexican  as- 
pect. But  the  motorman  and  the  conductor  who 
comes  to  take  your  seis  centavos  (three  Amer- 
ican cents)  have  quite  other  than  Anglo- 
Saxon  earmarks.  The  "running  stock"  of 
the  road,  for  that  matter,  would  reveal  some 
variations  if  watched  long  enough,  for  ex- 
ample— one  of  the  relatively  swift  things  in 
Mexico — an  electric  hearse,  that  is  a  flat  car, 
with  a  black  canopy  designed  for  funeral  pur- 
poses mounted  upon  it.  Such  a  car  will  be 
followed  by  passenger  coaches  as  many  as  the 
size  of  the  funeral  requires.  But  I  had  in- 
tended no  description  here — only  an  entry  in 
our  catalogue  of  things  distinctive.  Police- 
men and  letter  carriers,  and,  in  spite  of  their 
German  uniform,  soldiers  also,  are  as  Latin- 
American  as  careful  selection  could  have  made 
them  if  such  had  been  applied.  The  Amer- 
ican stores  as  well  as  the  shops  with  American 
clerks,  and  those  with  polyglot  French  and 
German  managers  or  clerks,  or  with  "Amer- 
ican" speaking  Mexican  clerks,  are  non-com- 
mittal enough  in  a  casual  view  of  their  stock, 
barring,  of  course,  souvenir  photographs  and 

113 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

curios ;  but  look  up  at  almost  any  of  the  build- 
ings in  which  they  are  housed  and  you  will 
know  that  you  are  not  in  the  neighborhood  of 
John  Wanamaker's  or  Marshall  Field's  em- 
porium. 

Even  between  the  crowds  in  one  national 
metropolis  and  in  another  the  likeness  is  al- 
ways superficial  and  confined  to  certain  quar- 
ters. Intermingled  with  "citizens  of  the 
world"  who  almost  constitute  an  international 
type  of  themselves,  and  with  foreign  people 
of  business,  there  are  always  the  clearly  in- 
digenous, those  who  in  the  nature  of  things 
would  not  be  where  they  do  not  belong.  One 
knows  them  instantly  to  be  the  rightful  in- 
habitants; and  nowhere  are  they  more 
strongly  marked  than  in  Mexico,  with  the 
sandals,  the  cotton  suit  of  two  garments  for 
man  or  woman,  the  gaudy  blanket,  the  wide 
hat  or  the  rebozo.  They  appear  as  free  from 
self-consciousness  and  go  as  calmly  about 
their  affairs  in  Mexico  City  as  in  Tehuacan. 
I  once  saw  two  imperturbable  Aztecs  in  native 
costume  drive  a  flock  of  a  hundred  or  more 
turkeys  along  San  Francisco,  the  most 
bustling  street  of  the  capital,  using  a  strip  of 
cloth  on  the  end  of  a  stick  to  direct  their 

114 


feathered  charges,  and  apparently  unconscious 
of  the  varied  world  around  them.  One  tur- 
key was  holding  up  an  injured  and  bleeding 
foot  that  had  been  run  over  by  some  car  or 
cart,  but  otherwise  things  appeared  to  be  mov- 
ing admirably. 

Among  the  well-to-do  one  can  find  the 
native  types  by  noticing  who  go  in  and  out  at 
old  houses  of  settled  character,  apart  from  the 
business  district.  A  frame  building  is  almost 
unknown,  by  reason  of  which  the  fire  loss  is 
practically  nothing,  though  companies  of 
"pumpers,"  that  is  firemen,  are  prudently 
maintained.  The  prevailing  style  of  house  in 
Mexico  City,  as  elsewhere  in  the  republic,  is 
the  hollow  square,  built  of  stone  or  of  either 
brick  or  adobe  stuccoed  over,  with  a  tunnel 
through  the  lower  story  from  the  street  to  the 
inner  hollow.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  Span- 
ish plan,  Oriental  before  it  was  Spanish,  of  a 
flat,  tile-roofed  house  of  two  or  three  stories 
built  around  an  open  court  or  patio,  fronting 
directly  on  the  street  and  with  no  outside 
ornament  except  the  window  balconies,  the 
heavy  gratings,  and  sometimes  elaborate  carv- 
ing or  other  adornment  on  the  wooden  doors. 
The  outside  walls,  if  stuccoed,  may  be  tinted 

115 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

variously;  and  if  the  occupants  have  bad  taste 
the  effect  may  be  almost  as  dreadful  as  they 
would  achieve  upon  a  clapboard  mansion  in 
Illinois.  There  is  no  lawn,  either  in  front, 
where  space  would  permit  none,  or  in  the 
court,  which  as  often  as  not  is  paved 
throughout.  This  court,  however,  is  usually 
made  beautiful  by  a  profusion  of  plants  and 
flowers,  occasionally  by  statuary  and  foun- 
tains. There  are  not  only  the  ponderous 
doors  at  the  entrance  from  the  street,  but 
grilles  at  the  farther  end  of  what  for  conven- 
ience we  have  called  the  tunnel;  and  the 
glimpse  of  the  patio  that  one  gets,  pleasing  as 
a  rule  even  without  their  enchantment,  ac- 
quires from  these  iron  gratings  an  added 
charm  of  half  concealment  such  as  a  lady's 
face  may  borrow  from  a  veil.  The  entrance  is 
wide  enough  to  admit  a  coach  and  pair,  with 
purpose,  too,  for  the  family  coach  does  actu- 
ally enter.  The  "carriage  house,"  as  we 
should  say,  and  the  stables  as  well,  are  com- 
monly parts  of  the  house  itself.  They  occupy 
a  corner  of  the  lower  story,  toward  the  back, 
the  servants'  quarters  occupying  the  front 
part  of  this  same  story.  It  is  true,  in  a  very 
large  house,  stables  may  be  built  on  a  sec- 


MEXICO    CITY 

ond  court  behind  that  of  the  house  itself, 
reached  by  a  second  "tunnel"  at  the  back. 
The  portcro,  or  doorkeeper,  is  an  important 
functionary  who,  with  his  family,  occupies  a 
room,  not  necessarily  blessed  with  any  furni- 
ture, near  the  door,  answers  every  summons 
on  the  knocker  or  bell  by  day,  locks  the 
doors  about  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  ex- 
pects a  fee  if  called  from  his  straw  mat 
after  hours  to  admit  any  belated  resident 
or  visitor.  The  family  live  on  the  sec- 
ond story,  where  a  "corridor"  or  balcony 
runs  completely  around,  reached  by  a  stair- 
way from  the  lower  court.  Here,  again,  there 
are  flowers  and  foliage  plants  in  pots  and 
boxes.  This  upper  veranda  is  a  pleasant 
place,  usually  affording  a  sunny  side  if  one  is 
chilly  or  a  shady  side  if  the  weather  seems  too 
warm. 

So  much  we  may  learn  without  intrusion  or 
undue  asking  of  questions  if  no  introduction 
actually  admits  us  to  a  house.  The  people 
who  go  in  and  out  of  these  spacious  dwellings, 
each  of  them  making  as  separate  an  atmos- 
phere for  itself  as  a  cloistered  monastery,  are 
the  leisurely,  graceful,  and  dark-skinned  dons 
and  ladies  that  we  should  expect. 

117 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

When  we  left  hotels,  restaurants,  and  shops 
behind,  we  left  most  of  our  American  and 
other  foreign  friends.  The  foreigners,  to  be 
sure,  do  not  all  live  in  hotels.  There  is  a 
highly  uninteresting  colony  where  various  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  transplant  Amer- 
ican styles  of  houses  or  to  compromise  be- 
tween these  and  the  established  type.  Then 
there  are  hundreds  of  families  that  either  own 
or  hire  houses  of  the  Mexican  plan,  or  live  in 
viviendas  (apartments)  as  they  find  them.  If 
we  stroll  by  accident  into  any  quarter  that  has 
been  thus  invaded,  however,  we  shall  soon 
recognize  it,  and  can  betake  ourselves  else- 
where for  observation. 


118 


SIGHT-SEEING   AT   THE   CAPITAL 

FOR  much  that  we  desire  we  may  make 
the  parks  our  stalking  ground.  The  Zo- 
calo,  as  it  is  called,  is  the  real  center  of 
Mexico  City,  so  far  as  grouping  of  interests 
is  concerned.  One  writer  has  said  that  in  no 
American  city  are  the  parks  used  in  any  such 
way  as  in  Mexico.  Washington  is  the  near- 
est approach  to  it.  A  park  is  a  lounging  place 
for  the  idle  hours,  a  promenade  for  the  exhibi- 
tion hours,  and  a  forum  for  the  most  interest- 
ing talkative  hours  of  genteel  people,  to  say 
nothing  of  laborers  and  others  with  no  dignity 
to  maintain.  The  Zocalo  is  all  this.  Then, 
too,  around  it  or  within  a  few  minutes'  walk 
are  the  Cathedral,  the  Flower  Market,  the 
National  Palace,  the  City  Hall,  the  Museum, 
the  National  Academy  of  Arts  (San  Carlos), 
the  National  Pawn  Shop,  the  Thieves'  Mar- 
ket, and  other  objects  of  admiration  or  curi- 
osity. All  these  might  be  seen  between  sun- 

119 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

rise  and  sunset  if  there  were  not  a  somewhat 
troublesome  schedule  of  open  and  closed  days 
for  some  of  them;  and  yet  at  almost  any  of 
them  a  week  could  easily  be  spent. 

Before  beginning  our  career  we  shall  have 
learned  the  whereabouts  of  the  Alameda,  a 
more  fashionable  park,  beyond  which  the  axis 
of  interest,  so  to  speak,  having  run  northwest 
from  the  Zocalo,  bends  to  the  southwest  and 
runs  on  to  a  third  park  more  famous  than 
either,  two  and  a  half  or  three  miles  distant,  at 
Chapultepec. 

Time  would  fail  us  to  do  much  more  than 
check  off  as  "seen  and  noted"  the  really  in- 
teresting institutions  already  on  our  list.  The 
Cathedral  is  the  foremost  church  edifice  in 
Mexico,  perhaps  in  North  America,  cruci- 
form in  plan,  with  two  towers  that  are  both 
beautiful  and  unique,  having  domes  shaped 
like  the  bells  that  they  support.  It  occupies 
the  site  of  the  principal  Aztec  pyramid  of  the 
city  and  is  built,  historians  say,  on  founda- 
tions made  largely  of  Aztec  carvings,  which 
have  been  found  and  are  still  found  in  great 
numbers  whenever  excavations  are  made  in 
the  vicinity.  The  Cathedral  is  a  massive 
structure  of  basalt  and  gray  sandstone  in  the 

120 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

Spanish  Renaissance  style,  over  390  feet  long 
by  180  broad,  is  known  to  have  cost  over  two 
millions  of  dollars,  and  was  ninety-four  years 
in  building.  The  decorations  and  treasures  of 
the  church,  previous  to  the  confiscation  by 
Juarez's  government,  were  almost  fabulous, 
and  even  now  it  is  rich  in  old  wood  carvings, 
paintings,  and  other  such  accessories  as  could 
not  readily  be  converted  into  public  funds. 
One  painting  is  an  undoubted  Murillo,  two  or 
three  others  may  be  of  the  same  or  equally 
high  origin,  and  a  number  by  native  painters 
are  good.  Mexican  onyx  in  lavish  quantities 
enriches  the  interior,  but  not  to  excess,  for 
Mexican  onyx  is  of  soft  rather  than  dazzling 
beauty,  in  appearance  about  equally  resem- 
bling wax  and  marble.  There  are,  as  always 
in  these  churches,  many  accessory  and  tem- 
porary things  which  are  gaudy,  hideous,  and 
altogether  out  of  character,  but  the  general 
effect  is  powerful  enough  to  overcome  their 
presence.  Critics  who  compare  it  with  the 
great  churches  of  Europe  regard  the  Cathe- 
dral as  a  beautiful  and  impressive  structure, 
characterized  on  the  whole  by  harmony  and 
restraint. 

The  middle-class  women  and  such  of  the 
1*1 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

wealthy  as  frequent  the  place,  with  their  re- 
bozos  or  mantillas  and  black  garments,  are  in 
keeping  with  the  architecture,  the  aged  and 
darkened  carvings,  the  pictures,  the  gigantic 
vellum-bound  books,  the  soft  light  of  the 
candles,  and  the  murmur  of  the  chants.  In- 
dians from  the  rural  districts  in  their  bright 
native  garb  come  and  kneel  to  kiss  in  apparent 
rapture  whatever  presents  itself  as  most 
sacred.  Their  understanding  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  religion  of  their  early  ances- 
tors and  that  which  they  profess  is  merely 
that  a  more  glorious  temple  and  a  superior  set 
of  divinities,  more  realistically  portrayed,  have 
somehow  displaced  the  old  ones.  "No  mat- 
ter," says  the  broad-minded  and  indifferent- 
minded  dispenser  of  off-hand  reflections,  "for 
a  half-hour  they  have  been  happy.  Idolatry 
and  superstition  appear  to  be  very  comfort- 
ing, exalting  things."  Indeed!  Opium  also 
is  a  comforting  and  exalting  thing,  at  times 
and  in  certain  effects;  but  to  avail  oneself 
of  its  nepenthe  has  not  seemed  favor- 
able to  personal  progress  or  to  bearing 
one's  part  in  the  common  march  forward. 
And  how  can  we  prove  that  progress  is 
desirable?  We  do  not  try.  Samuel  John- 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

son  was  once  asked,  since  the  cultivated  are 
not  all  happy  and  the  ignorant  not  all  miser- 
able, how  he  would  argue  that  knowledge  and 
culture  are  desirable.  lie  answered,  in  sub- 
stance, that  there  is  no  person  who  has  them 
and  could  be  induced  to  part  with  them,  and 
no  person  lacking  them  unless  a  fool,  who  fails 
to  desire  them.  Progress  commends  itself 
directly  to  the  sincere  intelligence,  and  to  any 
other  it  need  not  ask  to  be  commended.  For 
the  definition  and  the  proof  of  progress  we 
have  no  time  here.  I  have  seen  such  peones 
as  these  emerging  from  ignorance  and  super- 
stition to  a  sense  of  their  own  misery — not  a 
very  agreeable  change,  you  say — but  to  a 
larger  hope  for  their  children,  and  to  a  sus- 
taining belief  in  the  dignity  of  their  own 
souls  which  would  neither  unqualifiedly  admit 
any  reprobate  or  even  decent  fellow-mortal 
as  vicar,  nor  longer  think  it  right  for  any  gov- 
ernor to  hold  them  as  beasts.  I  have  seen  them 
exemplify  all  the  simple  virtues  that  smart 
writers  deny  them,  work  and  sacrifice  for 
their  new  faith,  and  approach  old  age  and 
death  with  a  less  fitful  happiness  than  they 
could  draw  from  myths  and  fables. 

I  speak  not  as  the  highly  regenerate,  not  in 
123  " 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

deference  to  so-called  missionaries  who  find 
easy  places  in  the  balmy  tropics  and  draw 
more  money  than  they  could  command  at 
home,  not  in  apology  for  missionary  secre- 
taries who  think  the  indolent,  the  languid,  or 
the  ill-prepared  are  fit  enough  to  send  out. 
But  self-sacrificing,  high-minded,  gifted,  and 
wise  men  and  women  have  built  their  strength 
and  their  virtue  into  the  Protestantism  of 
Mexico  with  its  hundred  thousand  adherents,* 
and  its  educated,  heroic  native  pastors  living 
on  $25  to  $10  a  month;  and  any  intelligent 
northern  man  of  the  white  race  who  has  lived 
in  Mexico  and  permits  them  all  to  be  called  to 
naught  is  unfair.  I  have  known  Unitarians  to 
contribute  up  to  the  full  measure  of  their  abil- 
ity to  Presbyterian  work  in  Mexico  because  its 
value  was  manifest  without  analysis  of  doc- 
trines. I  have  known  American  Roman 
Catholics  to  contribute  for  the  work  of  a 
Methodist  missionary  because  he  was  doing 
good.  They  did  not  consider  that  they  were 
helping  to  proselyte  anybody  from  Catholi- 
cism as  they  recognize  it.  Whether  they  would 
have  been  sanctioned  by  the  Vatican  I  doubt; 
but  they  made  a  natural  human  response  to 
things  as  they  found  them. 

124 

"Largely  scattered  during  tlie  Revolution. 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

American,  English,  and  French  Catholics 
visiting  the  country  have  repeatedly  written 
that  Mexican  faith,  so  far  as  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  people  are  concerned,  is  a  dead  faith. 
The  Aztec  religion  was  highly  ceremonial. 
"The  introduction  of  the  Roman  religion  had 
no  other  effect,"  according  to  Humboldt, 
"than  to  substitute  new  ceremonies  and 
symbols  for  the  rites  of  a  sanguinary  wor- 
ship." Catholicism  as  exemplified  by  the 
Spaniards  was  generally  at  its  worst,  and  &<* 
propagated  among  the  Indians  it  was  empti- 
ness unqualified.  It  has  improved.  I  heard 
a  priest,  not  an  American  nor  a  Frenchman 
but  a  young  Spaniard  from  the  Philippines, 
after  sending  a  sick  man  away,  with  his  prof- 
fered fee,  to  a  physician,  ask,  "How  can  you 
Protestants  consign  these  poor  cattle  to  either 
Heaven  or  Hell?  They  have  never  been 
taught  anything.  Surely  they  will  need  some 
place  of  probation."  Such  honest  and  rational 
treatment  as  his  will  help.  The  Protestant 
influence  will  help;  Catholicism  has  improved 
most  where  Protestantism  has  been  most 
active.  There  are  Mexican  Catholic  clergy- 
men who  admit  this.  A  sermon  or  some  dis- 
course to  the  people  in  Spanish  is  now  a  very 

125 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

common  part  of  the  service;  formerly  it  was 
unusual.  Another  consideration  is  that  the 
missionaries  do  not  gather  adherents  solely  or 
chiefly  from  attentive  members  of  the  Roman 
church,  but  very  largely  from  the  neglected 
and  the  unchurched.  To  suppose  that  all  the 
Mexican  people  are  already  Christianized  ac- 
cording to  the  tenets  of  Romanism  is  to  make 
a  blind  assumption.  Protestant  missions  are 
as  legitimate  and  almost  as  sorely  needed  in 
Mexico  as  in  India;  and  they  entered  only 
after  urgent  entreaty.  There  is  a  kind  of 
reciprocity  involved  in  whatever  work  may 
really  overlap  that  of  the  Roman  church,  for 
when  the  establishment  in  Mexico  was  the 
richest  in  the  world  considerable  money  was 
sent  to  help  weak  and  struggling  Catholic 
churches  in  the  United  States. 

So  much  of  reflection,  as  we  visit  and  leave 
the  greatest  religious  edifice  in  Mexico,  a  city 
of  churches  in  a  land  of  churches.  There  are 
three  hundred  in  the  capital  alone,  some  as 
beautiful  and  more  aristocratic,  though  not  so 
large  nor  so  interesting  as  the  Cathedral.  The 
most  popular  one  of  all  is  the  church  on 
Guadalupe  Hill,  not  in  the  city  at  all,  prop- 
erly speaking,  but  a  little  more  than  two  miles 

126 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

out  to  the  northeast,  in  a  line  parallel  with  the 
shore  of  the  gradually  receding  salt  Lake 
Texcoco.  Here,  in  1531.  when  some  effective 
sign  was  needed  to  turn  the  natives  from  their 
old  religion,  a  miraculous  lady  appeared  to 
Juan  Diego,  a  poor  villager.  She  was  in  fact 
the  Virgin  Mary ;  but  the  identity  is  not  much 
emphasized.  There  are  tens  of  thousands  to 
whom  the  Lady  of  Guadalupe,  or  simply 
"Guadalupe,"  means  more  than  all  the  other 
sacred  beings  in  their  category.  Her  like- 
ness as  she  appeared  in  a  luminous  cloud  was 
kindly  left  with  Juan  along  with  some  magical 
roses  on  his  mantle  and  is  as  familiar  through- 
out Mexico  as  the  national  coat  of  arms.  Why 
not,  as  she  is  the"  acknowledged  patron  saint? 
The  chapel  which  is  her  shrine  cost  a  million 
and  a  half  dollars  gold  and  contains  precious 
things  and  sacred  relics  of  great  additional  val- 
ue, including  the  miraculous  picture.  This  is 
the  most  frequented  shrine  in  North  America, 
not  excepting  Ste.  Anne  de  Beaupre  near 
Quebec.  It  is  the  source  of  marvelous  cures 
for  which  the  ignorant  in  thousands,  and  the 
less  ignorant  in  scores,  come  hundreds  of 
miles.  On  December  12th,  the  special  day  set 
apart  in  its  honor,  when  the  weary  and  wistful 

127 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

devotees  throng  out  by  every  means  of  con- 
veyance, as  well  as  on  foot,  different  onlookers 
may  have  different  feelings  hut  scarcely  any 
one  can  view  the  strange  procession  unmoved. 

Let  us  return  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Zocalo. 
The  simple  and  impressionable  Indian  was 
always  a  lover  of  flowers.  He  brought  flowers 
as  well  as  vegetables  through  tke  canals  that 
led  to  this  verv^  spot — to  the  old  city  of  Te- 
nochtitlan  on  the  shore  of  a  lake  now  disap- 
peared. He  still  knows  how  to  tend  them  and 
to  mass  them  in  seductive  array.  The  Flower 
Market  of  Mexico  City  in  early  morning  is  a 
place  to  go  and  see  roses,  poppies,  and  other 
flowers  really  abundant  for  once,  and  at 
prices,  despite  the  tourist  "bulling"  of  the 
market,  that  should  make  a  New  York  florist 
feel  highly  compassionate,  or  very  much 
ashamed.  Sweet  peas  enough  to  fill  a  wash- 
bowl, spicy  and  fresh,  may  be  had  for  a 
nickel.  Nor  do  they  become  contemptible  for 
their  cheapness  or  their  abundance,  here  in 
the  hands  of  these  romantic  children  of  the 
sun. 

The  Thieves'  Market  is  another  place  where 
variety  is  inconceivable,  where  beauty  and 
precious  values  may  be  present  though  in  am- 

128 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

bush,  and  where  romance,  albeit  of  a  different 
sort,  may  easily  spin  its  web.  Who  wore  these 
jewels  before  some  enterprising  thief  at  much 
risk  claimed  them  for  display  here?  Or  what 
enterprising  rogue  had  them  made  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  barter  with  the  "Gringo"? 
What  hands  lovingly  caressed  this  old  book, 
yellowed  with  years,  and  what  deft  fingers  em- 
broidered this  gossamerlike  shawl  of  silk? 
Were  yonder  little  shoes  taken  ruthlessly  from 
baby  feet  or  did  their  owner  outgrow  them  or 
perchance  move  to  a  country  where  none  are 
ever  needed?  What  happy  and  confident 
bride  concealed  her  blushes  and  eager  tears 
behind  this  veil?  To  what  treasuries  did  this 
great  hand-made  and  joyously  elaborated  key 
once  give  entrance?  This  little  old  painting 
with  its  wonderful  amber  varnish,  cracked 
but  luminous,  over  the  glory  of  color — who 
painted  his  life  into  it?  A  place  for  fancies 
is  the  Thieves'  Market.  One  of  the  most 
curious  things  that  happens  is  not  rare, 
namely,  that  some  one  who  loses  an  article  of 
value  goes  forthwith  to  the  Mercado  del  Vo- 
lador  and  makes  it  his  own  again  for  a  tithe 
of  what  it  first  cost  him. 

The  Pawn  Shop,  or  "Mount  of  Piety,"  here 
129 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

as  everywhere  under  the  sun,  is  a  varied  mu- 
seum illustrating  the  separableness  of  im- 
provident man  from  his  belongings  and  those 
of  his  wife  and  children.  But  this  pawn  shop, 
at  least  in  intent,  is  a  beneficent  institution. 
It  is  not  managed  in  the  interest  of  the  pound 
of  flesh.  A  rich  man,  in  1775,  seeing  how  the 
common  people  were  robbed  by  money  lend- 
ers, gave  a  fund  to  endow  a  concern  which 
should  loan  upon  a  given  article  something 
approaching  its  value,  charge  only  a  fair  rate 
of  interest,  and  make  redemption  of  it  as  easy 
as  possible.  The  national  government  recog- 
nized what  appeared  to  be  the  merit  of  such 
a  scheme  and  made  an  appropriation  to  ex- 
tend it,  not  only  in  Mexico  City,  but  else- 
where in  the  larger  towns  of  the  Republic. 
The  "good  loan  shark,"  by  the  way,  has  just 
arrived  in  the  United  States,  ushered  in  by 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  one  hundred 
and  thirty  odd  years  after  it  came  into  use  in 
Mexico. 

At  the  Academy  of  San  Carlos  and  also  at 
the  National  Museum  are  some  of  the  worst 
paintings  that  can  be  imagined,  and  they  are 
the  first  that  a  visitor  is  likely  to  see.  Flesh 
tints,  always  constituting  one  of  the  crucial 

ISO 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

tests  in  portrait  or  figure  painting,  were  a  new 
thing  to  be  reckoned  with  when  the  skin  of 
the  Indian  and  the  mixed  breed  was  to  be 
painted,  and  some  of  these  dignitaries  have 
the  complexion  of  an  old  whetstone  or  of  a 
white  man  who  has  survived  a  gunpowder  ex- 
plosion. When  you  have  seen  the  best  of  the 
work  here,  however,  you  will  have  seen  a  tri- 
umph that  for  veracity  may  rank  a  little 
higher  or  a  little  lower  than  the  successful 
treatment  of  the  blonde  or  the  near-blonde 
that  we  call  brunette,  but  which  for  intrinsic 
beauty  goes  beyond  comparison.  It  is  not  the 
color  of  a  chestnut,  nor  of  glowing  varnish 
upon  an  old  violin,  it  is  not  the  color  of  gold 
bronze,  it  has  no  exact  representation  in  ivory, 
nor  in  ancient  vellum ;  but  if  a  composite  of  all 
these  could  be  made,  one  who  has  no  technical 
knowledge  of  color  and  who  avoids  consider- 
ing too  severely  may  imagine  that  the  result 
would  be  something  like  this.  He  knows,  if 
he  has  seen  Indians  of  the  finer  types,  that 
whatever  the  ingredients  of  this  color  they 
have  found  them.  The  Mexican  artists  too 
have  found  them,  and  have  found  the  counter- 
feit of  life  which  makes  their  pictures  speak 
and  move. 

131 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

A  great  deal  of  the  riches  in  art  that  once 
abounded  in  Mexico  was  destroyed  or  taken 
away  during  the  French  usurpation,  and  some 
of  it  suffered  during  the  civil  wars.  Yet  there 
are  old  masterpieces  here  to  repay  the  pilgrim- 
age of  an  art  lover  from  New  York.  Murillo, 
Zurbaran,  Rubens,  Titian,  Guido  Reni,  Juan 
de  Carreno,  are  all  represented.  It  is  not 
such  importations,  however,  but  the  work  of 
the  early  and  the  modern  Mexican  schools  that 
will  make  the  most  striking  impress  on  a  visi- 
tor whose  thought  is  full  of  Mexico.  If  any 
single  picture  ought  to  be  specially  mentioned 
it  is  perhaps  that  by  Parra  of  Father  Las 
Casas,  the  Pere  Marquette  of  Mexico,  pro- 
tecting the  Indians.  It  is  of  heroic  size,  splen- 
didly conceived  and  feelingly  executed,  be- 
longs to  the  modern  school,  and  is  Mexican  in 
subject,  representing  an  incident  in  the  con- 
quest. As  for  the  best  piece,  there  is  no  best 
one  among  such  a  collection.  Noble  in  qual- 
ity, both  when  religious  scenes  are  depicted 
and  when  original  and  distinctively  Mexican 
subjects  are  treated,  most  impressive  in  num- 
ber and  spread  of  canvas,  superbly  hung  and 
lighted,  the  pictures  in  the  San  Carlos  gallery 
exalt  and  transport  the  visitor  of  average  re- 

132 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

sponsiveness  as  few  arrays  of  paintings  in  the 
whole  world,  probably,  will  do.  It  is  not  the 
awe  of  venerable  old  pictures  but  the  glory, 
the  opulence,  the  vivid  palpitating  joy,  loveli- 
ness, grief,  courage  of«life  which  startles.  It 
is  intimate,  though  in  type  or  incident  we 
might  describe  it  as  romantic  or  strange.  It 
fits  into  what  one  has  tried  to  actualize  when 
going  up  and  down  among  the  Mexicans.  It 
fuses  the  ideal,  the  romantic,  with  the  real  of 
the  sight-seeing  of  yesterday.  Whether  one 
should  desire  to  see  these  pictures  by  Echave, 
Cabrera,  Iberra,  Obregon,  Gutierrez,  Ortega, 
and  Felix  Parra  as  early  as  possible,  so  as  to 
carry  their  vision  into  one's  observation,  or 
whether  it  is  better  to  have  seen  first  with 
half-illumined  eyes  and  matter-of-fact  mind 
would  be  difficult  to  decide. 

The  National  Museum  has  its  collection  of 
pictures,  numerous  and  valuable,  but  of  no 
such  account  as  those  of  the  National  Acad- 
emy of  San  Carlos.  It  has  ethnological  and 
geological  and  zoological  exhibits;  but  it  is 
for  the  Aztec  and  other  antiquities  of  prehis- 
toric Mexico  that  the  museum  will  be  most 
remembered.  The  archaeological  section  can 
be  seen  and  a  very  strong  impression  got  of 

133 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

it  in  a  half-hour.  For  it  has  specimen  after 
specimen  of  colossal-sized  carving  in  porphyry 
and  trachyte  rock,  the  character  of  which  will 
make  itself  felt  at  a  glance.  Is  this  the  West- 
ern world?  Are  we  sure  we  are  not  in  a  mu- 
seum of  Bible  lands,  and  of  lands  that  Xeno- 
phon  and  Caesar  described?  Here  are  near 
cousins,  surely,  to  the  gods  and  demigods, 
demons  and  grotesqueries,  of  Egypt,  India, 
Assyria.  A  wise  scholar  may  tell  us  that  this 
great  figure  of  Chac  Mol  is  nothing  like  a 
sphinx,  that  his  head  faces  wrong,  that  his 
body  is  not  that  of  a  lion  but  of  a  man,  etc., 
but  we  have  seen  a  resemblance  that  will  not 
be  explained  away.  The  professor  may  tell 
us  that  other  figures  do  not  resemble  the  squat 
Buddha.  The  professor  knows  too  much. 
We  see  the  resemblance.  The  professor  has 
almost  become  brother  to  the  monoliths,  and 
he  distinguishes  them  all  according  to  their 
individual  marks.  It  needs  some  one  not  of 
the  family  to  take  in  resemblances  at  a  flash. 
Such  an  outsider  knows  when  he  sees  them, 
usually.  There  are  Ethiopian  types  here,  as 
unmistakable  as  a  photograph  of  the  stalwarts 
who  helped  Roosevelt  weigh  his  dead  lioness  in 
Africa.  There  are  faces  that  are  Mongolian, 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

if  we  ever  saw  any  such,  and  others  that  are 
Semitic.  We  who  are  not  learned  are  sure  as 
we  stand  here  that  the  natives  of  pre-historic 
Mexico  had  more  than  one  connection  with 
the  civilizations  of  the  ancient  East,  if  in  fact 
they  did  not  originate  them.  Asked  which  of 
the  various  theories  as  to  origin  we  believe,  we 
shall  probably  declare,  "All  of  them."  Nor 
shall  we  be  without  learned  support  in  our 
conviction. 

A  stone  calendar  weighing  twenty-four  tons 
shows  that  the  Aztec  year  had  eighteen 
months  of  twenty  days  each,  like  that  of  the 
Egyptians,  with  an  extra  period  of  five  days 
to  complete  the  astronomical  round,  and  in  its 
proper  time  a  leap  year.  This,  and  another 
huge  cylinder  believed  to  have  been  a  sacri- 
ficial stone,  are  both  admirably  carved  and  of 
very  hard  material. 

The  National  Palace,  in  part  of  which  the 
Museum  is  housed,  is  both  old  and  new,  hav- 
ing been  begun  in  1692  and  altered  from  time 
to  time  ever  since ;  and  it  is  a  rather  imposing 
structure. 

At  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Zocalo  is  the 
ancient  City  Hall,  "restored"  for  the  Cen- 
tennial Fete  in  September,  1910,  Within  its 

135 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

confines  regular  meetings  of  the  City  Council 
have  been  held  for  350  years. 

On  the  site  of  the  present  Zocalo  or  Plaza 
Mayor  the  Aztec  priests  found  the  symbolic 
eagle  on  the  cactus,  and  here  they  made  the 
center  of  their  town.  It  was  here  that  Cor- 
tez  found  the  chief  teocalli,  about  where  the 
Cathedral  now  stands,  and  here  some  of  the 
fiercest  fighting  was  done.  This  center,  the 
"Aztec  forum,"  became  also  the  center  of 
the  Spanish  town  which  immediately  began  to 
grow,  the  waterways  about  it  being  filled  up 
to  make  streets.  Little  by  little,  through  the 
centuries,  the  lakes  have  receded,  the  canals 
have  been  filled,  more  or  less  successful  drain- 
age has  been  effected,  until  it  is  harder  to  con- 
ceive the  ancient  city,  with  waterways  regu- 
larly intersecting  its  streets,  and  beyond,  upon 
the  two  "inland  seas,"  one  salt,  one  fresh,  the 
myriad  canoes  bringing  in  their  tribute, — this 
is  even  harder  than  to  imagine  Ely  or  some 
of  the  other  cathedral  towns  of  England  as 
formerly  upon  islands. 

The  drainage  canal  which  makes  the  chief 
guarantee  of  security  against  flood  and  fever, 
was  contemplated  as  early  as  the  fourteenth 
century,  begun  in  1607,  abandoned  ancj  re- 

136 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

begun  under  different  authorities,  including 
that  of  Maximilian,  and  at  last  finished  by 
President  Diaz,  in  1896,  at  a  cost  of  sixteen 
million  dollars.  It  does  not  prevent  the  soil 
from  being  marshy,  so  that  cellars  are  impos- 
sible and  the  death  rate,  though  reduced  from 
60  per  thousand  to  18  per  thousand,  is  still 
more  than  it  would  be  if  the  city  were  on 
higher  ground  not  far  away.  One  may  give 
only  qualified  belief  to  the  theory  that  vagrant 
cows  trod  out  the  city  plan  of  Boston;  but 
clearly  enough  the  site  of  Mexico  was  deter- 
mined when  jealous  neighbors  of  the  Aztecs 
would  not  let  them  settle  anywhere  else.  Why 
the  Spaniards  clung  to  the  unwholesome  choice 
is  less  clear.  One  viceroy  in  the  sixteenth 
century  asked  permission  of  the  crown  to  move 
the  capital  to  a  better  situation  where  are  noAV 
the  suburbs  of  San  Angel  and  Tacubaya;  but 
by  that  time,  so  far  had  growth  proceeded, 
the  change  would  have  cost  $50,000,000  and 
it  was  forbidden  by  the  ungenerous  monarch 
as  impractical. 

The  Alameda,  the  other  center,  is  a  more 
aristocratic  park,  very  beautiful,  and  associa- 
ted in  sentiment  with  Carlota,  who  did  much 
to  improve  it.  Just  before  reaching  it,  on  the 

137 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

way  from  the  Zocalo,  one  sees  the  only  mod- 
erately impressive  though  very  costly  post 
office,  too  much  lightened  and  weakened  in  ap- 
pearance by  broken  surfaces  and  open  spaces 
near  the  top,  but  really  one  of  the  best  post- 
office  buildings  in  the  world.  The  interior 
provokes  no  criticism.  Its  superb  marble, 
Italian  bronze  gratings,  and  richness  of  mate- 
rial throughout,  together  with  the  general 
plan,  suggest  a  building  for  some  art  purpose 
rather  than  for  the  business  of  a  government 
department ;  but  it  serves  no  less  well  for  that. 
The  eight-million-dollar  theater  at  the  east 
end  of  the  Alameda  is  a  thing  to  challenge  ad- 
miration at  once.  Let  us  hope  no  one  will 
insist  on  gilding  its  statuary  or  otherwise  ruin- 
ing its  delicate  beauty.  Its  curtain,  a  wonder- 
full  glass  mosaic  picture  of  the  mountains 
Popocatepetl  and  Ixtaccihuatl,  as  they  loom 
before  the  city,  was  made  by  Tiffany  in  New 
York.  One  cannot  help  wondering  what  use 
will  be  made  of  so  fine  a  theater  when  it  is 
finished,  seeing  that  Mexico  has  no  drama 
worthy  of  the  name  and  no  native  actors 
worth  mentioning.  Suggestion  has  been  made 
and  I  think  a  semi-official  promise  been  given 
that  first-class  companies  from  the  United 

138 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

States  will  be  offered  the  use  of  the  building 
free,  except  for  the  cost  of  lighting.  If  the 
government  does  this,  the  educative  effect 
should  be  considerable.  Good  opera,  indeed, 
especially  Italian  opera,  is  already  heard  and 
appreciated — I  heard  Tetrazzini  in  Mexico 
before  she  had  ever  sung  in  New  York.  How- 
ever, every  Latin- American  capital  must  have 
its  costly  national  theater,  so  why  cavil  as  to 
what  shall  be  done  with  it?  It  is  a  conven- 
tional ornament.  To  speculate  on  what  could 
have  been  done  in  the  way  of  model  tenements 
with  the  millions  spent  here  is  equally  idle. 
The  tenements  will  come;  and  the  children  of 
the  poor  will  be  taught  to  live  otherwise  than 
wallowing  in  filth.  For  the  beautifully  clean 
asphalt  streets  of  Mexico  do  run  close  to  only 
half-hidden  wretchedness  with  which  the  worst 
negro  alley  in  our  own  vaunted  Washington 
is  not  to  be  compared.  The  people  are  not 
descended  from  the  cleanly  Mayas,  but  from 
the  less  scrupulous  Aztecs;  they  have  long 
been  living  in  conditions  alien  to  them,  of 
which  they  are  neither  the  makers  nor  the  mas- 
ters and  which  give  little  room  for  dignified 
human  life.  So  in  looking  at  them  one  is 
grateful  for  visions  of  the  people  in  the  mar- 

139 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

ket  of  Tehuantepec,  or  even,   oppressed  as 
they  are,  those  in  the  fields  of  Yucatan. 

Let  us  not  be  accused  of  wandering  far 
from  the  Alameda,  for,  as  just  intimated,  we 
have  turned  but  a  little  aside. 

I  was  happy  enough  to  know  this  lovely 
park  when  one  could  pass  all  along  it  without 
being  startled,  amazed,  and  shocked  by  the 
colossal  statue  of  Juarez  which  now  fronts 
Avenida  Juarez  at  about  the  middle  point  of 
the  southern  edge.  Colossal  as  is  the  statue, 
one  feels  what  must  be  the  instant  effect  when 
a  great  wreath,  not  of  marble  but  of  gold,  is 
clapped  down  upon  its  head  by  one  of  the  like- 
wise colossal  angels.  There  are  urns,  also  of 
gold,  that  claim  at  least  as  much  attention  as 
the  central  figure,  and  there  are  two  lions  be- 
ing relentlessly  crushed  by  a  weight  on  the 
small  of  their  backs.  One  fancies  that  some 
enemy  of  Juarez  must  have  had  to  do  with  this 
hideous  perpetration.  If  the  gold  leaf  could 
be  all  removed,  the  total  effect  would  be  less 
than  half  as  bad. 

The  Juarez  statue  is  representative  of 
many  things.  Mexican  aptitude  for  drawing, 
design,  pen-work,  wood  carving,  painting  and 
all  allied  arts,  on  the  side  of  mere  facility,  is 

140 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

almost  unbelievable  to  an  American.  There 
is  hardly  a  school  where  some  boy  cannot 
draw  the  teacher  either  in  likeness  or  in  carica- 
ture as  he  chooses.  There  is  no  church  society 
or  other  little  local  group  that  cannot  have  a 
memorial  or  memento  nicely  engrossed  with- 
out going  outside  its  own  membership.  The 
love  of  color  and  of  ornament  is  everywhere. 
So  it  is  with  music.  Every  village  has  its 
brass  band.  The  tattered  peons  will  stand 
for  hours  listening  to  music  that,  in  the  United 
States,  would  be  too  good  to  be  popular.  The 
military  bands  of  Mexico  play  not  only  with 
zest,  but  with  soul,  and  are  acknowledged  to 
be  among  the  best  in  the  world.  To  hear  the 
national  anthem  played  as  they  often  play  it 
is  to  hear  a  thing  which  will  never  be  for- 
gotten. But  restraint  of  taste  seems  lacking 
among  rich  and  poor,  ignorant  and  educated. 
Women  overdress.  Men  make  display  pup- 
pets of  themselves.  Apart  from  the  outside 
severity  of  the  conventional  dwelling,  architec- 
ture tends  to  the  ornate,  the  overglorified. 
This  is  not  a  universal  indictment ;  it  is  a  state- 
ment of  general  observation.  The  emotional 
susceptibility,  the  responsiveness,  the  manual 
dexterity,  the  mental  ingenuity,  and  the  tem- 

141 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

peramental  patience  being  undoubtedly  pres- 
ent, there  would  seem  reason  to  hope  that 
increase  of  general  culture,  and  a  fuller 
liberation  of  the  spirit  of  the  nation  as  democ- 
racy advances,  will  bring  in  larger  creative- 
ness  than  we  matter-of-fact  Americans  have 
yet  attained.  The  really  superb  achievements 
in  painting  at  times  when  conditions  were  at 
all  favorable,  are  a  promise  of  this.  Sculp- 
ture, of  course,  is  a  severer  test,  and  architec- 
ture the  severest  of  all. 

Up  and  down  the  Alameda  on  Sunday 
morning  walk  the  "quality"  of  Mexico  City, 
listening  to  the  best  band  in  the  Republic.  On 
Sunday  afternoon  the  same  people  ride  be- 
hind Kentucky-bred  and  other  thoroughbred 
horses,  though  usually  in  quaint,  comfortable 
carriages,  out  past  the  Alameda,  along  the 
Paseo  de  la  Reforma,  past  the  great  bronze 
statue  of  Charles  V  of  Spain,  and  that  of  the 
valiant  Cuauhtemoc,  through  splendid  avenues 
of  trees,  to  Chapultepec.  To  Chapultepec,  in 
a  hired  coach,  an  inexpensive  thing  in  Mexico 
City,  let  us  betake  ourselves.  There,  at  sun- 
down, leaning  over  a  parapet  on  one  of  the 
inclined  approaches  to  the  castle,  aware  of  its 
reminiscent  though  not  dreadful  shadow  be- 

142 


SIGHT-SEEING    AT    THE    CAPITAL 

hind  us,  aware  of  the  sad,  sempiternal  great 
trees  below,  we  will  gaze  off  to  the  tender 
color  and  stupendous  bulk  of  Popocatepetl 
and  his  consort,  the  White  Lady  (Ixtacci- 
huatl),  as  they  float  in  the  haze  and  last  glow 
of  evening.  Here  Montezuma  took  his  ease. 
He  must  have  walked  often  at  nightfall  under 
those  same  trees,  which  are  a  thousand  years 
old.  Here  Maximilian  and  Carlota  dreamed 
their  dreams.  Here,  it  may  be,  American 
soldier  boys,  in  1847,  rested  after  a  not  too 
glorious  fray  and  forgot  to  question  the 
wherefore  of  present  commands  in  musing 
upon  "the  old  woe  of  the  world."  Change  has 
written  its  record  here  as  surely  if  not  in  as 
hard  characters  as  on  the  Palatine  or  the  Ac- 
ropolis. Yet  the  cypress  trees  live  and  grow, 
with  a  kind  of  melancholy  vigor  which  proph- 
esies long  continuance  and  succession  of  their 
kind  to  witness  the  coming  and  the  passing 
of  many  another  generation  and  perhaps  still 
changing  races  of  men. 

Those  who  profess  to  know  a  gay  capital 
when  they  see  it  declare  that  Mexico  City  is 
not  such.  It  has  its  clubs,  its  cafes,  its  showy 
balls,  its  handsome  women,  its  glare  of  lights 
at  night,  its  bullfight  on  Sunday  in  the 

143 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

largest  bull  ring  in  the  world,  and  its  various 
other  pleasures  and  vices.  Its  people  are 
vivacious  and,  in  the  main,  happy  even  when 
a  political  cloud  of  dread  omen  hangs  over 
them.  Hardly  any  people  can  be  more  lavish 
in  expenditure  for  play  or  more  extravagantly 
overdressed. 

That  a  strain  of  seriousness,  bordering  on 
melancholy,  and  quite  distinct  from  the  heavy 
solemnity  ascribed  to  the  English  in  proverbs, 
does  seem  present  even  in  their  enjoyment 
cannot  be  denied.  So  perhaps  Mexico  is  not 
a  gay  capital.  I  am  sure  that  neither  New 
York  nor  Washington  is  gay.  Perhaps  Paris 
or  Monte  Carlo,  analytically  considered,  is 
not.  Nothing  is  gay  that  is  not  naive,  spon* 
taneous,  youthful;  and  Mexico  has  memories 
enough  to  make  it  old. 


144 


XI 

THE   GOVERNMENT 

IT  has  already  been  said  that  the  national 
memory  of  Mexico  before  the  coming  of 
Cortez  is  largely  tradition.  The  country 
was  under  the  baneful  domination  of  Spain 
from  1521,  when  the  subjugation  of  the  Az- 
tecs was  completed,  to  1821,  when  Augustin 
de  Iturbide,  sent  to  suppress  a  revolution,  led 
his  forces  over  to  the  insurgents  and  became 
the  first  head  of  independent  Mexico.  There 
had  been  uprisings  before,  notably  one  in 
1910,  led  by  Miguel  Hidalgo,  a  priest,  whose 
statue  adorns  some  public  square  in  almost 
every  Mexican  city;  but  the  movements  had 
succeeded  only  in  creating  and  increasing  a 
desire  for  independence.  There  had  been  at- 
tempts, too,  on  the  part  of  some  governors 
and  viceroys  to  mitigate  the  condition  of  the 
people  and  suppress  the  worst  abuses  of  the 
clergy.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  Spanish 
rule  in  Mexico,  as  in  every  other  Spanish 

145 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

colony,  was  one  of  avarice,  hardness,  religious 
bigotry,  and  coercion.  Perhaps  the  Inquisi- 
tion was  never  practised  in  more  devilish  op- 
position to  the  principles  it  invoked  than  here. 
In  no  land  have  the  people  shown  more  of  the 
stuff  of  which  martyrs  are  made,  whether  in 
the  cause  of  patriotism  or  in  that  of  true  re- 
ligion. Initiative,  though  often  strikingly 
shown,  may  at  times  have  been  lacking,  but 
never  the  resolution  to  suffer  and  to  persevere. 
With  the  accession  of  Iturbide,  who  became 
the  first  Emperor,  the  Inquisition  at  least 
passed  away.  Other  benefits  were  slower  in 
coming. 

China  and  Russia  alone  were  greater  in  ex- 
tent than  the  empire  of  which  Iturbide  found 
himself  in  command.  It  included  Honduras 
to  the  south,  and  to  the  northward  set  up 
claims  on  the  western  half  of  the  continent 
even  as  far  as  the  present  border  of  Canada. 
There  were  as  vet,  however,  neither  settled 

•-          ' 

principles  of  control,  nor  any  means  of 
developing  this  almost  inconceivable  realm. 
Through  massacre  and  war,  the  Aztec  empire 
of  thirty  million  souls  had  shrunk  to  a  popula- 
tion of  fifteen  millions.  Soundness  could  not 
be  attained  in  a  moment,  even  had  the  new  ad- 

146 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

ministration  been  the  wisest.  Disintegration 
began.  Scarcely  a  year  passed  before  Gua- 
temala seceded,  and  already  a  formidable  re- 
publican movement  had  got  under  way.  An- 
tonio Lopez  de  Santa  Anna,  who  had  helped 
Iturbide  to  break  the  Spanish  rule,  now  pro- 
claimed the  end  of  Iturbide's  own  power  and 
the  establishment  of  a  republic.  This  was  at 
the  end  of  1822. 

With  many  ups  and  downs  and  much  of 
intermittent  warfare,  the  Mexican  republic 
was  maintained  from  1822  to  1864,  when  the 
French  interfered.  During  this  period  not 
only  had  Guatemala  seceded,  but  Texas,  on 
account  of  impatience  among  American  set- 
tlers with  the  erratic  and  intolerant  ways  of 
President  Santa  Anna,  and  influenced  by  the 
Southern  party  of  the  United  States,  had  de- 
clared its  independence.  The  war  against  the 
"North  Americans"  had  been  fought  unsuc- 
cessfully, and  more  than  a  half  million  square 
miles  of  territory  outside  of  Texas  had  been 
relinquished  as  a  forfeit  of  the  struggle. 
Santa  Anna,  after  a  downfall  and  a  return  to 
power,  had  sold  still  another  fifty  thousand 
square  miles  to  the  United  States.  Yet  in- 
ternally the  nation  improved;  Santa  Anna 

147 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

had  been  thrust  out  at  last  in  1855  and  the 
dictatorship — for  so  it  was — gave  place  to  an 
actual  republic.  Benito  Juarez,  first  as  Min- 
ister of  Justice,  then  as  President,  formulated 
what  William  H.  Seward  called  the  best  plan 
of  government  ever  devised.  True,  to  make 
his  admittedly  right  plans  effective  involved 
a  struggle,  the  end  of  which  was  not  to  be  in 
his  lifetime,  nor  perhaps  in  ours.  It  was  part 
of  a  world  struggle  to  establish  the  right  of 
all  human  creatures,  not  only  to  political  and 
religious  liberty,  but  also  to  some  freedom  in 
the  exercise  of  their  own  productive  powers 
and  a  share  in  the  bounty  of  nature.  The 
people,  however,  made  their  loyalty  to  Juarez 
unmistakable,  and  no  more  hopeful  sign  could 
have  developed  than  the  growth  of  an  en- 
lightened, consistent  public  sentiment,  A 
new  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1857.  The 
jurisdiction  of  ecclesiastical  and  military 
courts  over  civil  cases  was  declared  at  an  end, 
an  evil  which  Iturbide's  constitution  had  not 
even  sought  to  remove.  Religious  toleration 
was  guaranteed,  the  separation  of  church  and 
state  was  declared,  the  control  of  the  church 
over  cemeteries  was  denied,  the  right  of  the 
church  to  possess  landed  property  was  abol- 

148 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

ished,  civil  marriage  was  instituted.  The  ne- 
cessity for  the  two  last-named  measures  may 
well  be  explained  at  this  point.  The  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  Mexico,  while  the  people 
still  lived  in  abject  poverty,  was  the  richest 
church  establishment  in  the  world,  owning 
then  over  one-third  of  the  total  wealth  of  the 
nation,  or  about  $300,000,000  worth  of  prop- 
erty. Even  Roman  Catholics,  outside  the  re- 
actionary group,  admit  that  such  a  state  of 
affairs  is  not  desirable.  Madame  Calderon 
de  la  Barca,  herself  a  devout  Catholic,  gave 
warning  as  early  as  1841  that  if  reforms  were 
not  made  by  the  church  itself,  they  would  be 
forced  upon  it,  and  that  its  cathedrals  would 
perhaps  be  turned  to  "meeting  houses"  by 
Mexico's  neighbors  from  the  north.  Regard- 
ing marriage,  it  is  a  curious  reflection  that  this 
sacrament,  first  instituted  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  alienated  classes,  to  whom  the  old  Roman 
law  denied  the  right,  had  in  Mexico  and  other 
Spanish  countries  been  made  so  expensive  that 
I  he  poor  could  no  longer  afford  it.  Many 
thousands  of  children  were  illegitimately  born 
because  their  parents  could  not  pay  the  ex- 
tortionate fees  of  the  clergy.  The  institution 
of  civil  marriage  did  away  with  this  to  a  great 

149 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

extent,  and  to-day  no  marriage  in  Mexico  has 
legality  except  the  civil  marriage.  The  church, 
however,  dissuaded  or  intimidated  many  from 
availing  themselves  of  civil  marriage,  as  in- 
deed it  does  in  many  cases  to-day.  Similarly, 
the  papal  authorities  threatened  excommuni- 
cation to  all  who  professed  liberal  ideas. 
Juarez  answered  by  banishing  the  bishops,  the 
Papal  Nuncio,  and  the  Spanish  representa- 
tive. Though  civil  war  followed,  the  pos- 
sibility of  rallying  the  friends  of  liberty  by  an 
appeal  to  the  people  and  of  defying  supersti- 
tion was  proved. 

In  1861  Napoleon  III,  seeing  the  United 
States  on  the  verge  of  civil  war  and  unable  to 
enforce  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  conceived  a 
gigantic  scheme  for  the  re-establishment  of 
Latin  power  in  the  New  World.  He  would 
recognize  the  Southern  Confederacy  and 
strengthen  it  by  all  means  in  his  power.  He 
even  held  out  to  the  Southern  party  the  sug- 
gestion that  if  they  should  set  up  and  make 
firm  an  independent  confederacy,  a  union  of 
Mexico  with  it  would  be  favored  in  Europe. 
A  considerable  party  in  Mexico  desired  this 
extension  of  what  had  already  happened  to 
Texas.  Mexican  refugees  and  reactionaries 

150 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

in  France  viewed  it  with  no  favor,  preferring 
a  French  protectorate;  and  Napoleon  was 
treating  with  them  while  he  falsely  professed 
to  favor  the  other  plan.  So  the  wily  Bona- 
parte helped  to  precipitate  the  American  civil 
war.  To  England  he  represented  the  desir- 
ability of  limiting  the  power  of  the  United 
States,  but  concealed  his  dream  of  a  Latin 
and  Roman  Catholic  empire.  To  Spain  he 
revealed  this  dream  of  his  but  professed  an  in- 
tention that  he  seems  never  to  have  enter- 
tained— that  of  placing  a  Spanish  prince  on 
the  throne.  To  Austria  he  divulged  more  fully 
the  plan  afterward  attempted — that  of  com- 
pensating Austria  for  recent  injuries  which 
he  had  inflicted,  by  placing  a  representative  of 
the  Hapsburg  line  over  the  new  empire;  but 
even  to  Austria  he  did  not  emphasize  his  in- 
tention that  France  should  control  the  puppet 
thus  set  up. 

The  pretext  for  definite  action  came  when 
Juarez,  as  President  of  Mexico,  announced 
that  nothing  could  be  paid  and  that  no  at- 
tempt would  be  made  to  pay  anything  on  the 
Mexican  national  debt  for  two  years.  This 
was  not  repudiation  and  financiers  have  de- 
clared it  as  sound  a  thing  as,  in  the  impover- 

151 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

ished  condition  of  the  country,  he  could  have 
done.  Two  years  of  peace  would  enable  him, 
he  thought,  to  resume  payment.  Unfortu- 
nately, however,  the  announcement  gave  a 
pretext  for  France,  Spain,  and  England,  all 
creditors,  to  pounce  down  upon  him.  The 
United  States,  also  a  creditor,  refused  a  tardy 
invitation  to  join  them,  and  announced  its 
readiness  to  loan  money  to  Mexico  if  desired. 
A  military  expedition  started  in  1861,  but 
England  and  Spain  almost  immediately 
learned  that  they  were  being  duped  and  with- 
drew. Juarez  was  able  to  rally  a  stronger 
support  and  maintain  a  greater  resistance 
than  had  been  anticipated.  The  United 
States,  which  had  steadfastly  recognized  the 
little  Indian  statesman's  government  and  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  usurper,  astounded  all 
Europe  by  the  resources  put  forth  in  dealing 
with  the  Southern  secession.  Even  the  South 
itself,  incensed  at  Napoleon's  trickery,  turned 
from  him  and  his  schemes.  Certain  politicians 
went  so  far  as  to  propose  that  North  and 
South  make  a  truce  till  their  united  armies 
could  sweep  the  French  invaders  mto  the  sea. 
It  was  an  exaggeration  to  declare,  as  has  been 
done,  that  either  President  Davis  or  President 

152 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

Lincoln  favored  this.  The  idea  was  consider- 
ably discussed,  however,  which  fact  in  itself 
shows  that  unanimity  of  American  feeling  re- 
garding Mexico  had  come  to  be  assumed  pre- 
vious to  Lee's  surrender.  The  "Emperor" 
Maximilian,  for  whom,  with  his  beautiful 
young  wife,  Carlota,  an  appropriation  of 
about  a  million  dollars  a  year  had  been  made 
from  the  hypothetical  resources  of  a  dis- 
tracted, oppressed,  and  bankrupt  nation,  had 
proved  equal  only  to  the  ornamental  and  cere- 
monial requirements  of  his  office.  So  of  all 
the  deceived  and  disappointed  parties  to  the 
whole  scheme,  barring  the  unhappy  Maxi- 
milian and  Carlota,  no  one  was  more  disap- 
pointed and  humiliated  than  Napoleon  III. 
The  civil  war  in  the  United  States  being  at  an 
end,  and  emphatic  demands  for  the  evacuation 
of  Mexico  being  made  by  the  American  Secre- 
tary of  State,  he  felt  obliged  to  comply.  The 
pretty  Emperor  and  Empress  refusing  to 
join  in  this,  he  abandoned  them.  Maximilian 
was  captured  and  shot  at  Queretaro,  June  19, 
1867,  and  Carlota,  after  a  vain  journey  and 
appeal  to  both  Napoleon  and  the  Pope,  went 
mad.  The  Mexican  people  have  always  re- 
garded the  lily-fair  prince  and  his  beautiful 

153 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

wife  as  unfortunate  rather  than  as  astute  and 
sinister  figures. 

Now  comes  the  most  problematic  turn  in 
Mexican  history.  Juarez  returned  to  the  cap- 
ital and  took  up  the  details  of  government  as 
nearly  as  possible  where  they  had  been  inter- 
rupted five  years  before.  One  of  his  strong- 
est military  supporters  had  been  General  Por- 
firio  Diaz,  whose  patron  and  friend  he  was 
from  the  time  when  Diaz,  as  a  boy,  entered 
the  law  school  at  Oaxaca.  He  had  trusted 
and  befriended  Diaz  all  along,  and  the 
younger  man's  loyalty  up  to  this  time  seems 
not  to  be  questioned.  So  far  as  the  tangle  of 
diverging  stories  and  deliberate  coloring  of 
records  will  permit  a  foreigner  easily  to 
judge,  the  military  service  of  the  young  man 
had  been  of  highest  value.  He  had  displayed 
courage,  foresight,  astuteness,  and  almost  in- 
credible vigor.  Up  to  this  time  the  relations 
of  the  two  men  were  such  as  coming  genera- 
tions in  Mexico  might  have  looked  upon  with 
pride  and  gratitude.  Juarez,  however,  was 
not  only  an  enemy  of  church  domination  and 
of  foreign  domination,  he  was  also  an  enemy 
of  military  domination.  Himself  a  repre- 
sentative in  blood,  experience,  and  tradition 

154 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

of  the  class  who  had,  perhaps,  sacrificed  more 
than  any  other  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
nation,  he  firmly  believed  in  their  capacity,  if 
they  could  have  wise,  patriotic  leadership  for 
a  few  years,  to  learn  self-government.  His 
critics  regard  him  as  a  doctrinaire  in  this, 
and  point  not  only  to  the  untutored  condition 
of  the  Indians,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  mil- 
itary leaders  who  had  helped  to  sustain  the 
government  must  of  course  be  reckoned  with. 
They  were  sure,  in  view  of  their  habits,  to  de- 
mand larger  rewards  than  could  accrue  under 
a  democratic  government.  Such  demands  they 
did  in  fact  promptly  make.  What  more 
simple  and  natural  than  that  the  country 
should  be  divided  into  military  departments, 
that  each  general  should  be  given  a  depart- 
ment from  which  he  could  farm  revenues  and 
in  which  he  might  administer  government  as 
he  chose,  and  that  the  only  return  demanded 
should  be  unfailing  payment  of  a  quota,  un- 
failing military  support  when  needed,  and  un- 
failing assent  to  all  the  acts  of  the  central 
government  at  all  times?  The  plan  of  Juarez 
was  undeniably  more  complex  and  far  more 
difficult,  one  of  the  difficulties  being  that  the 
generals  would  declare  war  on  him  if  he  did 

155 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

not  satisfy  them.  He  chose  the  harder  way. 
Diaz  refused  to  follow,  artfully  declaring  that 
he  could  but  sympathize  with  his  old  com- 
panions in  arms,  as  years  of  service  had  un- 
fitted them  for  high  place  in  democratic  civil 
life.  He  could  by  no  means  take  the  sword 
against  them,  he  said,  and  the  nation  was  not 
ready  for  the  higher  course. 

Assuming  that  Juarez  was  right,  had  he 
been  heartily  supported  by  Diaz,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  Diaz  would  in  due  time  have  been 
chosen  president  upon  the  same  platform.  He 
stood  second  to  Juarez  in  national  promi- 
nence, and  as  a  military  figure  had  no  equal. 
Supposing  that  Juarez  was  wrong,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  seems  strange  that  Diaz's  with- 
drawal and  later  his  active  opposition  in  arms 
never  accomplished  the  downfall  of  the  little 
Indian  idealist.  Harassed  by  some  whose 
support  would  have  comforted  and  enor- 
mously aided  him,  nevertheless,  until  he  died 
suddenly  in  1872,  five  years  after  the  depart- 
ure of  the  French,  fifteen  years  after  his  first 
elevation  to  the  presidency,  and  seventeen 
years  after  he  had  announced  the  Juarez  law 
concerning  courts  of  justice,  Juarez  was  able 
to  maintain  his  government  through  that  pub- 

156 


lie  support  on  which  he  relied.  At  Juarez's 
death,  there  was  perhaps  only  one  other  man 
capable  of  weathering  the  storms  to  which 
the  presidential  office  was  subjected.  In 
1876,  after  four  troublous  years,  in  which  he 
himself  led  part  of  the  disturbances,  Porfirio 
Diaz  became  president,  and  with  the  nominal 
exception  of  one  four-year  term,  he  ruled  the 
country  thenceforth  for  thirty-five  years,  till 
the  spring  of  1911.  He  had  come  in,  how- 
ever, upon  a  different  principle  from  that  of 
Juarez,  and  by  a  different  principle  he  ruled. 
The  material  development,  which  means  also 
the  exploitation  of  the  national  resources  by 
foreign  capital,  was  phenomenal.  The  main- 
tenance of  order  in  spite  of  unsuccessful  up- 
risings of  which  a  censored  press  told  little, 
was,  on  the  whole,  either  commendable  or 
sinister,  according  to  the  point  of  view,  but  in 
either  case  was  effective.  Foreign  capital  and 
foreign  settlers  were  encouraged  to  partic- 
ipate in  the  wealth  of  the  country.  It  was 
even  said  that  an  Englishman,  a  German,  or 
an  American  could  enjoy  under  Diaz  more 
security  in  his  business  enterprise  than  any 
native  might  feel,  and  conduct  his  enterprises 
on  better  terms  than  any  native  not  belonging 

157 


to  the  official  governmental  group.  Mean- 
while, the  friends  of  the  deposed  ruler  argue 
that  everything  possible  has  been  done  to  edu- 
cate the  masses  and  make  them  ready  for 
what  Juarez  proclaimed  fifty  years  ago — a 
democratic  government.  There  is  a  school  in 
every  municipality  of  the  Republic  and 
2,000,000  children,  they  declare,  are  in  the 
public  schools — by  no  means  an  incredible 
figure.  Assuming  that  progress  is  being  made, 
the  foreign  observer  is  inevitably  brought  to 
feel  that  after  thirty-five  years  of  military 
despotism,  the  common  people  have  much  left 
to  desire,  and  even  if  inclined  to  think  that 
the  dream  of  Juarez  was  impractical,  he  will 
still  wish  that  it  might  have  come  true.  As 
for  the  people  themselves,  in  so  far  as  they 
rise  to  the  level  of  intelligent  belief,  they  are 
enthusiastic,  persistent,  and  unwavering  in 
their  assertion  that,  given  a  leader  of  the 
Juarez  school,  they  could  have  realized 
Juarez's  program.  Ultimately,  of  course,  a 
people  will  obtain  for  themselves  a  govern- 
ment approximating  what  they  deserve  and 
have  intelligence  to  appreciate.  The  Mexi- 
cans have  always  coveted  better  than  they 
have  had,  and  have  never  admitted  that  the 

158 


iron  hand  of  irresponsible  power  was  toler- 
able. That  President  Diaz,  though  strong, 
efficient,  and  it  may  be  patriotic  in  motives, 
was  ever  in  all  his  "unanimous"  elections 
really  the  object  of  popular  choice,  has  only 
the  flimsiest  appearance  of  verity.  His  final 
election  in  1910  was  a  caricature.  The  op- 
position forces  had  been  shattered  by  the  ar- 
bitrary and  forcible  breaking  up  of  their  meet- 
ings, the  imprisonment  of  their  leaders,  and 
the  intimidation  by  soldiers  at  the  polls  of 
voters  with  the  hardihood  to  present  them- 
selves. The  defenders  of  the  government 
profess  that  a  dignified  and  peaceful  cam- 
paign would  have  been  tolerated.  Those  in- 
terested in  it,  and  many  foreign  witnesses  as 
well,  have  declared  that  the  campaign  was 
notable  for  self-restraint  under  trying  condi- 
tions. However  that  may  be,  an  actual  elec- 
tion was  not  permitted.  The  president, 
through  members  of  his  cabinet,  had  been 
warned  that  if  the  nation  were  thwarted  then, 
revolution  would  follow.  Uprisings  did  occur 
at  once  following  the  so-called  re-election  and 
within  a  few  weeks  took  on  serious  propor- 
tions. 

Travel  and  much  inquiry  in  pacific  quarters 
159 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

of  the  country  during  the  struggle  warrant 
me  in  the  assertion  that  discontent  was  almost 
universal.  Fundamentally  its  cause  was  eco- 
nomic; unjust  division  of  benefits,  preposter- 
ously unequal  distribution  of  taxes,  and  out- 
rageous dispossession  of  small  land  owners 
from  their  ancestral  homes,  being  averred. 
But  the  immediate  demand  was  for  political 
reform.  The  progressive  movement  harks 
back  to  the  little  Indian  legislator  of  1855  as 
its  prophet. 

Up  to  the  present  there  is  only  one  name  in 
all  their  annals,  the  mention  of  which  will 
bring  an  emotional  response  of  pride  and  ven- 
eration among  Mexican  citizens  from  the 
northern  to  the  southern  end  of  the  country — 
one  name  that  they  delight  to  put  beside  that 
of  Washington,  who  might  have  been  a  king, 
but  who  would  not — and  that  is  the  name  of 
Juarez.  So  strong  has  this  sentiment  been 
all  along,  that  the  president  and  every  repre- 
sentative of  the  government,  ignoring  the  his- 
toric relation  of  their  regime  to  his,  must  join 
with  what  heart  they  could  in  the  annual  and 
occasional  demonstrations  of  it.  If  a  second 
name  is  put  with  that  of  Juarez  in  any  spon- 
taneous way,  it  is  that  of  the  patriot  priest 

160 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

and  first  great  martyr  of  Mexican  liberty, 
Hidalgo.  The  time  may  come  when,  for  a 
widely  different  service,  a  more  qualified  ap- 
preciation will  be  given  to  Porfirio  Diaz  with 
something  like  the  same  general  accord;  but 
the  time  is  not  yet.  For  better  or  worse  he 
has  had  his  day  and  the  future  will  judge 
him.  The  revolution  of  1911  was  not  directed 
against  an  old  man  whose  control  could  no 
longer  be  more  than  nominal  and  whom  the 
people  would  have  been  willing  to  let  die  in 
peace,  it  was  directed  against  those  who  might 
pretend  to  be  his  logical  successors  without 
having  demonstrated  the  only  right  that  can 
ever  justify  despotism,  the  right  of  might. 
Such  right  in  his  years  of  early  vigor  Porfirio 
Diaz  proved  in  a  remarkable  degree.  Such 
right  will  have  to  be  shown  by  his  successors 
if  he  is  to  have  any.  Otherwise,  and  probably, 
a  new  order  will  prevail.  That  something  of 
the  rigor  of  the  Diaz  policy  is  needed  while 
outlaws  defy  the  government  and  terrorize 
peaceful  farms  and  villages  almost  every  one 
believes.  It  is  one  thing  to  insist  on  law  and 
order,  however,  and  quite  another  thing  to  in- 
sist that  all  shall  favor  the  existing  officers  for 
continuance  in  power.  This  Diaz  did.  A 

161 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

change  must  come  and  be  made  permanent. 
That  its  definite  arrival  might  have  been  vig- 
orously and  convincingly  asserted  at  once  by 
the  Madero  government,  and  not  have  needed 
confirmation  through  the  further  drenching  of 
the  country  in  blood,  is  the  wish  of  every 
friend  of  the  Mexican  people. 

In  dismissing  this  subject  a  word  should  be 
said  about  the  organic  form  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  Constitution  of  Juarez  has  never 
been  abrogated  or  greatly  altered.  It  ex- 
pounds the  nature  of  the  Mexican  government 
as  federal — that  is,  composed  of  free  and  sov- 
ereign individual  states — as  representative, 
and  as  democratic.  It  distinguishes  three  co- 
ordinate branches  of  government,  adopting 
our  own  fiction  that  the  judicial  function  is 
neither  legislative  nor  executive.  The  rights 
of  individuals  are  guaranteed,  in  some  re- 
spects more  fully  than  by  our  Constitution. 
The  mechanism  with  which  to  carry  out  this 
scheme  is  provided  for  and  has  in  fact  been 
preserved — a  President  chosen  by  an  electoral 
college,  a  bicameral  Congress  whose  mem- 
bers are  nominally  elected  by  the  people,  and 
a  system  of  courts  like  our  own.  The  separate 
state  legislatures  correspond  to  ours.  In 

162 


THE    GOVERNMENT 

practical  working,  since  the  death  of  Juarez, 
there  has  been  but  one  department  of  govern- 
ment, that  is  the  executive.  Under  Diaz  the 
governor  of  a  state  was  his  representative,  the 
jefe  politico  of  a  district  was  responsible  to 
the  governor;  and  the  people  had  nothing  to 
do  with  choosing  any  of  them.  Still  it  is 
something  to  have  had  the  right  principles 
laid  down  in  theory  and  acknowledged  in 
form.  It  makes  difficult  the  opposition  of 
any  argument  but  force  against  the  institu- 
tions of  democracy,  and  gives  the  progressive 
group  an  immediate  basis  of  procedure. 


163 


XII 

XOCHIMILCO 

THE  valley  of  Morelos  lies  close  to  the 
valley  of  Mexico,  though  at  a  lower 
level  and  with  a  high  wall  between.  It 
is  possible,  if  one  has  pneumonia  and  hours 
are  precious,  to  take  a  train  in  the  unhealth- 
ful  capital  at  daybreak,  arrive  in  balmy  Cuer- 
navaca  by  noon,  and  be  declared  on  the  way 
to  recovery  next  day.  Under  usual  condi- 
tions, however,  the  valley  of  Mexico  is  not  to 
be  so  eagerly  left.  While  the  nights  are  often 
chilly,  the  climate  is  otherwise  almost  irre- 
proachable and  the  natural  charms  of  the  val- 
ley are  worthy  of  some  large-visioned  poet  of 
outdoors.  It  should  not  be  discredited  because 
it  had  one  piece  of  lowland  whose  open  drain- 
age the  Spaniards  could  stop  and  upon  which 
a  somewhat  miasmic  though  beautiful  city 
could  be  built.  So  even  if  one  cannot  tarry 
for  months  to  etch  in  the  picture  of  maguey 
fields  on  the  drier  flat  lands,  of  cypress  trees, 

164 


XOCHIMILCO 

of  dome-crowned  villages,  and  of  encircling 
mountains,  at  least  one  can  pay  the  respect 
of  a  slow  departure.  This  may  be  done  by 
way  of  the  Viga,  the  one  Aztec  canal  that  still 
remains  in  use,  leading  south  toward  Cuerna- 
vaca  as  far  as  Xochimilco. 

There  are  those  who  will  tell  you  that  they 
have  seen  this  canal,  so  extravagantly  described 
in  books,  and  that  it  is  no  more  than  a  slimy 
ooze.  They  have  seen  the  miserable  diminu- 
endo at  the  city  end  that  is  finally  lost  in  a 
sewer ;  but  they  do  not  know  the  Viga.  What 
stream,  even  the  mightiest,  without  very  spe- 
cial protection,  can  make  its  way  through  a 
city  of  450,000  inhabitants  and  still  remain 
"undefiled  for  the  undefiled"?  Even  at  the 
city  end  of  this  ancient  canal  our  friends,  if 
alert,  might  have  seen  something  to  describe 
other  than  the  excrements  of  obscene  brew- 
eries along  the  banks,  and  unlimited  oceans  of 
mud ;  they  might  have  seen  the  people,  one  of 
the  superlatively  clean  tribes,  thank  Heaven! 
propelling  their  dugouts  up  and  down,  and  in 
the  dugouts  enough  vegetables  for  a  thousand 
tables,  besides  flowers  in  quantities  really  ex- 
citing to  think  of. 

For  thirteen  miles  as  one  goes  out  along  the 
165 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Viga  there  are  no  tributaries.  There  is  only 
one  channel  of  nearly  uniform  width,  arched 
by  quaint  bridges  and  enlivened  by  an  unend- 
ing succession  of  barges  going  to  market  with 
garden  truck,  and  of  little  canoes  that  dart 
along  upon  other  errands.  Gradually  the 
water  becomes  purer  till  it  is  void  of  offense. 
Then  begins  perfect  enjoyment.  The  re- 
moter plain  may  be  somewhat  brown  in  the 
dry  season,  varied  only  by  the  maguey,  cousin 
to  our  old  friend  the  henequin  plant,  while 
near  by  on  either  hand  are  luscious  green 
fields  with  cattle  wading  or  grazing  at  will, 
The  canoe  moves  easily,  propelled  not  by  oars 
or  paddles  but  by  a  long,  light  pole  thrust  to 
the  bottom.  In  places  this  is  varied  by  toss- 
ing a  rope  to  one  of  the  boatmen,  who  leaps 
cheerfully  ahead  with  it  over  his  shoulder,  now 
in  water,  now  upon  a  tow  path,  his  muscular 
though  not  heavy  limbs  bare  to  the  thigh. 
Boys  fish  from  the  banks.  New  things  are 
constantly  appearing,  not  to  tease  the  eye  and 
the  mind  as  on  a  railway  journey,  but  to  be- 
guile the  imagination.  At  last,  after  about 
four  hours,  the  canal  resolves  itself  into  a 
great  number  of  smaller  canals  which  are  fed 
by  springs  in  themselves  worth  a  visit,  and  are 

166 


XOCHIMILCO 

conducted  in  and  out  among  the  so-called 
"floating  gardens"  so  as  to  make  every  gar- 
den an  island.  Within  the  memory  of  men 
still  living  much  of  this  area  was  a  lake  and 
some  of  the  gardens  were  actually  floating; 
but  now  the  little  oblong  patches  of  soil  rest 
upon  bottom.  The  willows  that  grow  straight 
up  like  Lombardy  poplars  were  once  only 
stakes  to  keep  the  unique  real  property  from 
moving  off.  Masses  of  water  plants  buoyed 
up  by  air  chambers  on  their  stalks  float  upon 
what  remains  of  the  lake  and  show  how  land 
began  to  form.  As  would  be  guessed  from 
such  an  origin,  the  gardens  have  the  richest 
mold,  they  never  lack  water,  and  the  sun 
smiles  upon  them  as  only  a  southern  sun  can. 
Each  is  as  large  as  a  good  town  lot  and  any 
of  them  if  actually  afloat  would  sink  from  the 
weight  of  vegetables  and  flowers.  The  poppy, 
the  sweet  pea,  and  the  bachelor's  button  are 
favorite  flowers,  though  carnations  and  mar- 
guerites also  abound  and  roses  are  by  no 
means  uncommon.  All  these  and  other  blos- 
soms hang  down  and  are  reduplicated  in  the 
water.  They  scramble  over  the  tops  of  the 
houses.  In  daylight  or  in  moonlight  they 
make  incomparable  pictures  at  every  turn. 

167 


The  graceful,  brown-armed  figures  gliding 
about  in  their  canoes  strike  no  jarring  note. 
Nothing  annoys.  The  most  appropriate  ex- 
clamation at  the  crystal  springs  of  Xochi- 
milco  is,  "I  did  not  believe  there  was  such  a 
place  in  the  world!  " 

Barges  go  down  heavy  with  the  current  to 
Mexico  and  come  back  light.  Few  large 
cities  have  sources  of  so  abundant  supply  for 
vegetables  and  flowers,  with  means  of  trans- 
portation so  cheap.  Xochimilco  was  a  source 
of  supplies  for  the  Aztec  capital  in  the  old 
days,  and,  unless  scholars  have  wrongly  trans- 
lated, an  occasional  source  of  victims  for  the 
Aztec  sacrificial  stone.  Whoever  lived  here 
at  any  time,  if  he  had  marauding  neighbors, 
must  have  been  an  easy  prey,  for  gentleness 
and  soft  confiding  in  the  loveliness  of  an 
idyllic  world  are  as  natural  here  as  a  square 
front  to  all  comers  must  be  in  a  country  of 
highland  blasts.  A  friend  of  mine  had  a 
quarrelsome  retainer  who  chose  to  follow  him 
from  one  locality  to  another  and  always  man- 
aged to  involve  himself  and  his  master  in 
trouble.  They  went  to  Xochimilco  and 
Gabriel  fought  with  no  one.  It  seems  he 
could  find  no  one  to  fight  with. 

168 


XOCHIMILCO 

It  cost  three  Mexican  dollars  ($1.50)  to 
bring  out  seven  of  us  in  a  large  covered  canoe, 
with  enough  luggage  to  burden  four  or  five 
carriers  in  transferring  from  the  canoe  to  the 
house.  A  canal  ran  very  near  the  house  occu- 
pied by  our  friends,  the  only  foreign  family 
in  the  village,  by  whom  we  were  to  be  enter- 
tained. A  canal  runs  near  everybody's  door 
in  Xochimilco;  there  are  a  hundred  miles  of 
them  at  least.  Fish  abound  and  come  in  fine 
condition  from  the  cold  water.  We  saw  many 
goldfish  of  no  diminutive  size,  and  bought  for 
fifty  centavos  a  wriggling  carp  that  weighed 
about  six  pounds. 

This  American  friend,  at  whose  house  we 
stopped,  an  engineer,  was  in  charge  of  work 
installing  a  new  plant  to  increase  the  water 
supply  of  Mexico  City.  He  took  us  along  a 
small  canal  until  suddenly  it  widened,  deep- 
ened, and  came  to  an  end.  We  were  floating 
upon  a  basin  seventy-five  feet  in  diameter, 
twenty-five  feet  deep,  and  filled  with  gushing 
pure  water.  It  was  one  of  the  marvelous 
springs  at  Xochimilco,  flowing  about  eight 
million  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours.  There 
are  several  others,  not  so  large,  but  still  of 
great  output  and  all  of  the  same  pure  water, 

169 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

fed  probably  by  the  melting  snow  and  ice  of 
Popocatepetl. 

A  feature  of  every  landscape  hereabout  is 
the  little  church.  Above  the  fringe  of  green 
vegetables  or  of  glorious  bloom,  over  the 
thatch  of  the  hut,  between  the  willows,  against 
the  bulk  of  the  mountains,  there  is  certain  to 
be  a  church  in  the  view.  We  must  have  seen 
twenty,  all  commanding  because  of  the  low- 
ness  of  the  houses  round  about,  all  venerable- 
looking  and  harmonious  with  the  feeling  of 
the  place;  never,  on  any  of  them,  a  "steeple." 
The  spire  with  its  call  to  upward  pursuit  of 
the  unattainable,  is  no  part  of  Mexican  church 
architecture.  The  dome  seems  to  suggest 
contemplation  and  repose.  True,  the  Span- 
iards were  restless  enough,  but  their  restless- 
ness was  not  upon  the  side  that  churches 
represent.  Concerning  religion  they  leaned 
back  upon  authority,  and  came  easily  to  that 
perfectness  of  satisfaction  which  must  have 
expressed  itself  powerfully  at  times  to  any  one 
who  has  traveled  in  Mexico,  the  land  of 
domes.  There  are  said  to  be  more  of  these, 
chiefly  of  the  media  naranja  (half  orange) 
form,  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
And  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  cannot  adopt  this 

170 


XOCHIMILCO 

form  as  his  emblem,  for  he  is  self-conscious, 
he  can  be  happy  in  visiting  a  land  whose  tem- 
perament it  suits. 

"Xochimilco,"  our  engineer  friend  declared, 
"is  only  the  beginning  of  the  most  beautiful 
part  of  the  canal  system,  for  you  can  travel 
a  full  day  beyond.  I  never  did  get  to  the  end, 
though  on  a  trip  some  time  ago  I  went 
through  a  string  of  towns  for  over  thirty 
miles.  I  was  fascinated  with  some  of  the  old 
places — splendid  they  must  have  been  once; 
but  they  had  gone  down  and  down  as  the  more 
intelligent  sons  of  the  families  were  drawn 
off  to  the  cities,  till  some  fine  haciendas  were 
altogether  deserted  and  others  occupied  only 
by  peons.  It  was  impossible  not  to  build  air 
castles  when  I  thought  of  what  a  progressive 
trained  man  could  do  there  on  some  places  to 
be  bought  almost  for  the  song  that  he  might 
sing.  Cattle  of  the  best  breeds  would  thrive 
on  his  wide  level  fields,  vineyards  and  orchards 
would  spring  up  at  his  touch  in  this  perfect 
climate,  water  power  and  streams  for  irriga- 
tion would  come  from  the  hills  to  work  magic 
for  him,  native  labor  would  offer  itself  cheaper 
than  he  ought  to  wish,  and  paddle  wheels  on 
the  canals  would  carry  all  his  produce  to  a 

171 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

great  market.  This  will  come  true  for  some- 
body, but  for  whom?  I  think  it  will  come 
true  most  largely  and  remain  true  the  longest 
for  Americans,  Europeans,  or  intelligent  In- 
dians, according  as  one  or  another  of  them  has 
most  spiritual  depth  and  force — most  desire 
to  give  and  to  teach  among  the  poor  natives 
and  not  merely  to  exploit  them.  In  the  end 
I  think  all  Mexico  will  be  the  heritage  of 
those,  whoever  they  are,  who  come  with  a  will 
to  help.  The  other  sort  of  thing  goes  to  seed 
and  to  rot,  as  it  has  once  done  in  this  valley; 
and  in  the  long  run  social  forces  among  the 
common  people,  the  allies  of  the  man  who 
helps,  will  destroy  the  parasite.  As  neigh- 
bors of  Mexico  we  Americans  have  great  pos- 
sibilities at  our  doors;  the  question  is,  Are  we 
big  enough?" 

My  friend  the  engineer  is  an  idealist,  and 
grows  very  enthusiastic  at  times. 

From  Xochimilco  it  is  not  far  to  Eslava 
where,  only  a  day  late  because  of  our  little 
journey  into  a  primitive  world,  we  can  take 
the  train  from  Mexico  to  Cuernavaca.  One 
gets  almost  a  bird's  eye  view  of  the  region  of 
Mexico  City  from  the  top  of  the  range  at  a 
height  of  10,000  feet. 

172 


XIII 

CUERNAVACA,    CUAUTLA,    PUEBLA 

CUERNAVACA,  though  not  inviting 
comparison  with  the  little  Indian  Ven- 
ice, is  in  its  own  way  the  loveliest  spot 
yet  visited.  At  Xochimilco  one  rubs  one's 
eyes  and  looks  again  to  make  sure  that  the 
scene  really  belongs  to  the  world  of  wide- 
awake. At  Cuernavaca  one.  settles  forthwith 
into  a  conviction  of  always  having  known  the 
place,  and  a  feeling  that  everything  here  is 
the  normal  by  which  things  elsewhere  may  be 
tested.  With  an  altitude  of  only  4500  feet, 
more  than  two  thousand  feet  lower  than  the 
valley  of  Mexico,  and  with  a  southern  ex- 
posure among  sheltering  hills,  this  other  val- 
ley has  no  cold  winter,  no  cold  nights  and  no 
hot  ones,  no  droughts,  no  inconveniences  of 
climate,  hot  or  cold,  wet  or  dry.  The  town 
of  7000  inhabitants  is  all  clean,  orderly, 
thrifty,  reposeful,  and  old.  The  steep  and 
narrow  streets,  which  often  become  stairways 

173 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  rock,  the  thick  walls,  the  heavy  doors,  the 
elaborate  latches  and  hinges,  all  bear  the  testi- 
mony of  age.  It  is  a  place  of  running  water, 
and  fountains  are  numerous. 

Of  course  the  town  has  its  cathedral,  this 
one  founded  in  1529;  and  of  course,  being  of 
sufficient  antiquity,  it  has  a  palace  of  Cortez. 
We  visited  his  residence  in  Oaxaca,  and  an- 
other in  Coyoacan,  a  suburb  of  Mexico  City, 
this  latter  being  the  oldest  structure  erected 
by  any  white  man  on  American  soil.  Now  we 
must  by  all  means  pay  our  respect  to  the 
Cuernavaca  palace,  the  more  because  it  has 
been  made  the  state  government  building  and 
because  it  commands  from  the  roof  a  superb 
view  of  the  green  valley  and  the  peaceful 
mountains.  It  was  begun  by  Cortez  in  1530. 

The  chief  exhibit  of  Cuernavaca  is  the 
Borda  Garden,  established  about  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  by  Joseph  le  Borde, 
a  Frenchman  who  had  made  enormous  for- 
tunes in  Mexican  silver  mines.  It  is  said  to 
have  cost  a  million  pesos  then,  but  time  has 
added  much  that  the  owner  could  not  buy, 
both  in  definable  beauty  and  in  the  pervasive 
charm  of  imaginative  suggestion.  There  are 
old  walls,  built  high  and  solid  enough  to  en- 

174 


CUERNAVACA,    CUAUTLA,    PUEBLA 

dure;  trees  grown  old  but  of  unfailing  vigor; 
old  Moorish  fountains  that  have  become 
weathered  and  flawed  but  lost  nothing  of  their 
airy  Saracenic  grace;  walks  that  Carlota  trod 
many  a  time,  when  Cuernavaca  was  the  sum- 
mer capital,  and  when  old  Joseph,  their  first 
owner,  had  been  long  sleeping  in  a  poor  man's 
grave;  benches  on  which  she  must  have  sat; 
roses  and  oleanders  that  she  may  have  tended, 
and  mangoes  whose  fruit  she  may  have  eaten. 
You  will  think  more  of  Carlota  in  the  garden 
than  you  will  of  its  original  owner  whose 
name  it  bears;  and  many  other  thoughts  you 
will  have  which  you  will  never  convey  unless 
to  some  one  at  your  side  under  the  shade  of 
the  tropical  trees  with  their  unfamiliar  names 
and  their  delicious  fruits. 

Cuautla,  in  climate  and  general  character, 
needs  no  description  to  one  who  has  visited 
Cuernavaca.  It  is  not  quite  so  old,  not  quite 
so  large,  and  not  quite  so  full  of  romance; 
but  having  famous  hot  sulphur  springs  is 
rather  more  haunted  by  invalids  and  Testers. 

Not  in  the  state  of  Morelos,  where  we  have 
been  lingering,  but  in  a  state  whose  name  it 
shares,  Puebla  has  a  little  more  altitude,  a 
little  cooler  climate,  yet  the  same  quality  of 

175 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

softness  in  the  air,  the  same  sulphur  water 
that  flows  so  abundantly  in  Cuautla,  and  a 
degree  of  the  same  popularity  with  those  need- 
ing to  be  cured.  Puebla,  however,  is  more  of 
a  city,  and  can  assimilate  these  latter  visitors 
as  Cuautla  cannot.  Moreover,  Puebla  has 
some  charming  suburbs  and  rest  spots  to 
which,  being  a  city,  it  dispatches  many  of  the 
impotent  or  the  indisposed.  With  a  popula- 
tion just  under  one  hundred  thousand,  it  nar- 
rowly misses  being  the  second  city  in  size  of 
the  republic;  and  if  it  must  yield  to  Guadala- 
jara in  this  respect,  it  still  claims  second  place 
in  the  consideration  of  the  visitor.  It  has  the 
name  of  being  conservative  as  to  taste  and 
social  customs,  anti-foreign,  Romanist  in  re- 
ligion, reactionary  as  to  politics.  Certainly 
it  is  not  progressive  in  many  of  the  usual  im- 
plications of  the  word;  but  without  being  so 
it  would  seem  to  have  made  progress  in  what- 
ever contributes  to  its  charm.  The  capital  of 
the  richest  state  in  Mexico,  it  has  a  look  of 
comfort  and  of  competence.  In  architecture, 
in  landscape,  in  the  equipages  upon  its  clean 
asphalt  streets,  in  the  dress  of  its  well-to-do 
citizens,  one  is  reminded  that  essential  har- 
monies may  be  preserved  in  more  than  one 

176 


CUERNAVACA,    CUAUTLA,    PUEBLA 

style.  Puebla  society  is  accused  of  being  ex- 
clusive, and  perhaps  this  is  confirmed  rather 
than  otherwise  by  the  eagerness  that  I  ob- 
served in  the  daughter  of  one  of  its  prominent 
families,  when  visiting  in  another  town,  to 
make  acquaintance  with  the  American  and 
English  colony,  including  the  Protestant 
church  there.  If  so,  when  their  opportunity 
for  reciprocating  came  the  family  were  gener- 
ous beyond  expectation  in  making  a  little 
glimpse  of  their  own  life  possible.  I  was  in- 
vited to  call  at  the  house,  which  does  not  hap- 
pen to  a  young  man  in  their  own  set  unless  he 
is  an  accepted  suitor.  They  were  meeting  an 
American  in  his  own  way.  The  daughter 
whom  I  knew  greeted  me  first,  after  the 
servant.  I  was  conducted  to  where  the 
maternal  head  of  the  household  and  her  old- 
est daughter  sat  to  receive  their  callers,  and 
was  introduced.  Then  for  a  few  moments  I 
sat  in  a  second  parlor  with  Miss  Maria,  as  I 
shall  name  her — an  impossible  departure  from 
their  conventional  etiquette — till  the  younger 
sisters  began  to  come  in  one  after  another, 
down  to  a  little  toddler  of  four  years.  Puzzled 
at  first  by  a  stranger  whose  speech  was  for- 
eign, she  ended  by  sitting  on  my  lap.  Whether 

177 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

the  entry  of  this  beautiful  troop  was  also 
contrary  to  established  rules  I  do  not  know. 
Some  very  wise  persons  will  say  that  of  course 
such  special  favors  were  tantamount  to  a 
matrimonial  acceptance;  but  they  certainly 
had  not  the  shadow  of  such  meaning.  I  was 
not  only  an  American,  but  I  was  an  American 
from  another  city,  in  Puebla  for  no  more  than 
three  or  four  days,  and  they  had  decided  to 
treat  me  according  to  American  ways  of  hos- 
pitality so  far  as  they  knew  them.  If  in  any 
particular  they  happened  not  to  know,  they 
would  err  on  the  side  of  kindness.  On  a  sec- 
ond call  to  take  leave,  I  did  not  see  the  chil- 
dren till  I  was  going  out,  but  then  found 
them,  all  four,  in  the  corridor  in  a  row  wait- 
ing to  bid  me  good-by.  It  is  years  since  then 
and  I  have  never  met  one  of  the  family  since ; 
but  this  pretty  and  gracious  picture,  together 
with  others  that  I  remember  of  the  luxurious 
and  beautiful  home  and  perfectly  managed 
household,  is  still  a  source  of  enjoyment. 

Puebla  has  more  Mexican  history  than  any 
other  city  except  the  capital.  Not  founded 
till  1532,  when  the  Spaniards  felt  the  need  of 
a  city  halfway  between  and  more  healthfully 
located  than  either  Vera  Cruz  or  the  Aztec 

178 


CUERNAVACA,    CUAUTLA,    PUEBLA 

capital  on  Lake  Texcoco,  it  nevertheless  has  a 
miraculous  story  of  its  location,  two  angels 
having  pointed  out  the  spot  to  Fray  Julian 
Garces.  So  it  was  called  Puebla  de  los 
Angeles.  It  soon  outgrew  the  neighboring 
Indian  town  of  Cholula  as  Mexico  City  did 
its  ancient  neighbor  Xochimilco.  Leaping 
over  to  modern  times,  it  was  captured  in  1821 
by  Iturbide,  the  first  ruler  of  independent 
Mexico,  was  occupied  by  the  Americans  in 
1847,  and  was  besieged  and  taken  by  the 
French  in  1862.  A  little  later,  May  5,  1862, 
its  recapture  by  General  Zaragoza  was  the 
most  brilliant  victory  in  all  the  history  of 
Mexican  arms,  and  May  5  has  been  as  great 
a  national  holiday  ever  since  as  the  Fourth 
of  July  is  with  us.  The  French  regained  the 
town  again  next  year  and  held  it  till  1867, 
when  it  was  captured  by  General  Porfirio 
Diaz,  and  the  French  garrison  were  made 
prisoners.  Zaragoza's  victory  in  1862  changed 
the  name  of  the  town  to  Puebla  de  Zaragoza. 
No  longer  a  "city  of  the  angels,"  Puebla  is 
still  a  city  of  churches.  Any  commanding  view 
of  it  will  show  from  fifty  to  seventy  domes, 
agreeing  in  outline  with  those  other  domes, 
Popocatepetl  and  Orizaba,  on  either  hand,  and 

179 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

in  color  showing  all  the  variety  of  tiles  for 
the  manufacture  of  which  Puebla  is  noted. 
Popocatepetl  is  accompanied  by  his  consort 
Ixtaccihuatl  and  also  in  this  case  by  a  strange 
figure,  that  of  the  pyramid  of  Cholula,  nearer 
at  hand.  To  the  north  is  Malintzi,  almost  as 
towering  as  the  other  two  giants,  so  that  there 
is  always  an  enclosing  rim  to  the  region,  and 
everywhere  the  land  has  its  bounty  of  grow- 
ing crops. 

Of  all  the  churches,  the  cathedral  is  the 
most  notable.  Not  so  large  as  the  cathedral 
in  Mexico  City,  it  is  still  very  large — 323  feet 
by  101  feet.  If  not  quite  so  rich  upon  the 
exterior,  it  is  generally  felt  to  be  even  more 
harmonious;  and  within  it  has  not  only  the 
same  advantage  but  has  also  fortunately  kept 
more  of  the  opulence  of  decoration  and  fur- 
nishing that  history  associates  with  both  these 
buildings.  The  interior  is  even  "gorgeous"  as 
described  by  one  writer.  It  is  not  only  in 
broad  general  effects  that  it  gives  the  impres- 
sion of  richness;  whether  one  examine  the 
onyx  and  marble  altars,  columns,  and  pave- 
ments, or  the  wondrous  old  Gobelin  tapestries 
of  extremely  pagan  subjects  given  by  Charles 
V  of  Spain,  or  the  statuary,  or  the  paintings 

180 


CUERNAVACA,    CUAUTLA,    PUEBLA 

by  European  and  Mexican  masters,  or  the 
wood-carving  and  inlay  work  in  ivory,  the 
effect  remains  throughout  of  unstinted  devo- 
tion of  rich  materials,  of  labor,  of  ingenuity, 
and  of  art.  Some  discriminating  critics  re- 
gard the  Puebla  cathedral,  taking  it  all  to- 
gether, as  more  worthy  of  study  than  any 
other  church  in  America,  not  even  excepting 
that  at  Mexico.  Again,  curiously,  like  the 
cathedral  at  the  capital,  it  is  not  the  fashion- 
able church. 


181 


XIV 

A   TOLTEC    PYRAMID 

FROM  Puebla  it  is  less  than  two  hours 
to  Cholula,  the  town  of  the  pyramid.  I 
speak  of  going  by  tramcar  and  not  by 
that  contrivance  out  of  due  time,  the  Inter- 
oceanic  Railway.  Not  that  progress  need  be 
lamented,  even  by  the  sentimentalist,  for  it  is 
by  innovation,  so  often  deplored  as  an  enemy 
of  romance,  that  romance  is  made  perpetual. 
Not  till  a  thing  has  passed  out  from  daily 
habit  and  commonplace  utility  may  fancy  be- 
set it  with  a  glamor  of  things  past;  but  the 
consecration  is  one  in  which  epochs  are  not 
finely  observed.  This  quaint  and  dingy  con- 
veyance, and  the  tiny  mules  in  front,  now 
tugging  pitifully  over  a  hard  place,  now  at  a 
level  jog,  and  again  scampering  away  down 
some  slope  before  the  pursuing  car — these 
might  have  belonged  to  any  age  not  ours — so 
they  do  not  offend. 

On  either  side  as  we  pass,  grain  fields  show 
that  the  earth  yields  willing  increase,  and  at 

183 


A    TOLTEC    PYRAMID 

intervals  are  reapers  who  thrust  in  their  sickles 
and  turn  with  tedious  movement  to  lay  the 
grain  in  sheaves,  as  was  the  manner  of  reap- 
ing long  ago.  Such  oxen  as  these  that  plod 
along,  with  yokes  rudely  bound  upon  their 
horns,  labor  steadily  forever  on  imperishable 
old  Greek  bas-reliefs.  Somewhat  as  now  we 
see  them,  asses  went  burdened  in  the  time  of 
Mary  and  Joseph.  The  jars  that  are  borne  on 
dark  and  graceful  shoulders  are  of  a  form 
long  familiar  before  Rebekah  came  out  from 
Nahor  to  draw  water.  As  for  the  wromen  and 
girls  who  are  washing  at  many  pools  by  the 
way,  they  are  types  from  the  age  when  Nau- 
sicaa  spread  her  new-whitened  garments  by 
the  shore  of  the  sea. 

It  was  in  the  afternoon  that  I  arrived  at 
this  town  so  variously  celebrated,  and  found 
in  it  neither  a  remnant  of  the  great  and  splen- 
did city  which  the  scribes  of  Cortez  lyingly 
represented,  nor  a  mere  "town  of  one-story 
whitewashed  mud  huts"  which  was  all  one 
mole-eyed  modern  writer  could  discover.  I 
found  under  the  dominant  shadow  of  the  giant 
mound  a  sleepy  and  romantic-looking  village 
in  which  the  signs  of  former  Spanish  domi- 
nance are  plain,  in  which  the  hues  of  venerable 

183 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

towers  and  domes  seem  dissolving  under  the 
breath  of  decay  to  mingle  with  the  softer  air, 
in  which  the  tones  of  bells  in  harmony  still  call 
a  simple  people  to  worship  at  unthrifty  hours, 
and  in  which  balconies  and  grated  windows 
suggest  many  a  fancy  of  love-making  in  years 
gone  by.  In  short,  Cholula  is  a  provincial 
Mexican  town.  There  two  civilizations  met, 
the  older  was  nearly  obliterated  by  the  other, 
and  that  in  turn  was  left  to  slacken  when  the 
usurpers  who  brought  it  had  been  driven  out. 
The  impulse  of  new  Mexican  life  has  not  been 
much  felt  there,  so  Cholula  dreams  on  in  its 
valley. 

Within  five  minutes  two  ragged  boys  at- 
tached themselves  to  me  for  better  or  for 
worse.  They  first  helped  me  to  buy  and  eat 
some  bananas  and  mangoes  at  the  market 
place  where  a  canvass  of  every  booth  had  to 
be  made  before  the  woman  could  return 
change  for  my  dollar,  and  then  it  came  all  in 
centavos.  They  pointed  out  an  old  sacrificial 
stone  and  were  able  to  hint  vaguely  that  it 
had  a  fearful  history.  In  fact,  it  was  doubt- 
less wet  many  a  time  with  human  blood.  At 
each  of  the  churches  they  informed  me  as  to 
how  much  money  I  should  give  the  sacristan, 

184 


having  a  care,  I  think,  lest  my  stock  of  cen- 
tavos  should  unduly  lessen  before  they  had  re- 
ceived their  part.  One  advised  the  use  of  my 
field  glass  for  looking  at  a  picture  in  the  con- 
vent; and  the  other  thought  me  an  ill-fur- 
nished Americano  because  I  had  no  camera. 
They  sold  me  for  ten  centavos — so  far  had  we 
advanced  in  friendship — a  clay  head  that  is 
muy  antiguo  (very  ancient)  and  for  which 
they  had  at  first  asked  a  dollar.  They  even 
became  confidential  regarding  their  family 
affairs.  Both  father  and  mother  were  dead, 
and  their  only  dependence  was  an  aunt,  who 
was  at  times  very  abusive.  When  I  remarked 
that  they  did  not  seem  unhappy,  both  at  once, 
with  the  most  aggrieved  tone  possible,  ex- 
claimed, "Como  no,  Senor?"  ("Pray,  why 
not?") 

Together  we  sauntered  out  to  the  pyramid. 
This  is  larger  than  any  other  such — about  two 
hundred  feet  high  and  more  than  a  mile  in 
circumference.  The  latter  measurement  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  largest  Egyptian 
pyramid,  though  in  height  some  of  the  Egyp- 
tian structures  are  greater.  It  must  also  be 
said  that  while  the  Egyptian  monuments  were 
built  of  natural  stone,  this  thing  of  little  honor, 

185 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

as  our  unpoetic  friend  would  describe  it,  was 
built  of  mud.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  built  of 
sun-dried  bricks,  the  junctures  of  which  can 
still  be  seen,  and  was  faced  with  stone  and 
plaster  which  have  either  crumbled  away  or 
been  removed.  Its  form,  however,  must  have 
been  at  one  time  strikingly  like  the  Egyptian, 
though  truncated.  This  teocalli  of  Cholula 
is  not  the  best  preserved  in  Mexico.  The 
Pyramid  of  the  Moon  and  the  Pyramid  of 
the  Sun,  the  two  principal  ones  at  Teoti- 
huacan,  noticed  on  our  first  journey  to  the 
capital,  are  more  perfect  specimens.  But  the 
one  at  Cholula  is  more  famous,  and  the  vege- 
table growth  of  a  milder  climate  has  made  it 
more  beautiful.  Its  flat  top,  about  an  acre  in 
extent,  and  with  a  stone  parapet  all  around, 
is  not  so  empty  as  theirs,  but  is  surmounted 
by  a  Spanish  church  which  takes  the  place  of 
the  once  splendid  temple,  and  with  which 
also  the  hand  of  time  has  been  at  work.  Nor 
is  the  spot  without  an  added  charm  of  pathos 
to  the  imagination  of  most  visitors,  probably, 
because  of  that  valiant  resistance  and  bloody 
massacre  which  have  been  noted  since  the  con- 
quest. 

When  I  asked  my  guides  and  instructors 
186 


A    TOLTEC    PYRAMID 

who  built  the  pyramid,  they  said,  "Los  Az- 
tecas"  Other  authorities  have  disagreed, 
thinking  the  pyramid  older  than  Aztec  occu- 
pancy, and  ascribing  it  to  that  gentler  and 
more  civilized  people,  the  Toltecs.  Indeed, 
faith  in  the  general  accuracy  of  my  informants 
was  somewhat  shaken  at  this  point;  for  when 
I  asked  who  built  Popocatepetl,  they  again 
answered,  "Los  Aztecas"  I  tried  to  bring 
them  to  a  worthier  notion  of  the  old  giant 
towering  in  the  distance,  wrapped  about  just 
then  with  the  whiteness  of  two  distinct  cloud- 
levels  below,  and  above  with  his  monk's  cowl 
of  eternal  whiteness.  The  attempt  may  have 
been  lost.  They  seemed  to  take  my  correc- 
tion at  once ;  but  ready  agreement  is  a  finished 
art  with  them,  and  I  am  not  sure  of  their 
thoughts. 

On  the  summit  of  the  mound  one  commands 
a  fine  view  of  the  country  round  about  for 
many  miles,  broken  here  and  there  by  a  moun- 
tain and  bounded  at  last  by  the  crests  that 
make  the  limit  of  the  valley.  One  does  not 
think  it  strange  that  here  the  ancient  god  of 
agriculture  bade  his  last  farewell  to  Mexico. 
Should  he  ever  return — as  some  natives  still 
hope  with  well-nigh  Hebrew  fondness,  seeing 

187 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

that  the  Spaniards  by  no  means  brought  him 
on  their  arrival — should  he  ever  come  again 
to  this  valley  of  Puebla,  he  will  find  that 
meanwhile  he  has  not  been  wholly  without 
devotees.  Rude  enough  is  their  devotion;  but 
Heaven  seems  to  acknowledge  it  with  har- 
vests. 

Cortez  declared  that  from  this  eminence  he 
counted  four  hundred  pagan  temples;  and  it 
is  of  record  that  as  he  destroyed  them  he  set 
the  natives,  however  unwilling  or  little  able, 
to  replace  each  by  a  building  for  Catholic 
worship.  It  would  seem  that  in  this  instance 
Cortez  may  have  told  the  truth,  for  churches 
stand  as  close  everywhere  as  lighthouses  on  a 
rocky  coast.  If  so  many  can  be  seen  from  one 
point  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  it  would  be 
interesting  to  know  where.  They  lend  them- 
selves so  to  beauty  in  the  landscape,  and  look 
such  perfect  symbols  of  peace  and  simple 
piety,  that  one  is  not  willing  to  regard  them 
otherwise.  One  accuses  oneself  of  ungrate- 
fulness when  the  thought  occurs  that  blood 
was  wrung  from  an  unhappy  people  in  the 
demand  for  tribute  to  these  sacred  buildings 
— a  demand  from  whose  impoverishing  effect 
they  have  never  recovered. 

188 


A    TOLTEC    PYRAMID 

Having  taken  a  farewell  glance  at  the 
panorama  in  the  slanting  light,  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  go  my  way.  A  native  ran 
after  me,  offering  an  arrow-head  for  sale  and 
declaring  with  great  emphasis  that  it  was 
genuine.  I  assured  him  of  my  implicit  belief, 
and  said  that  I  had  seen  pecks  of  such  curios 
found  in  the  Connecticut  Valley.  He  turned 
back  in  no  ill  humor,  apparently  less  vexed 
than  amused.  At  the  railway  station,  for  I 
confess  I  left  by  railway,  we  three  friends 
justly  d'-vided  the  nowr  lighter  burden  of  cen- 
tavov,  aj-d  said  a  cordial  good  night.  I  hoped 
that  for  once  the  dreaded  aunt  would  be  rea- 
son? *>?*- 


189 


XV 

HIGHER   THAN    THE   ALPS 

EITHER  Cholula  or  Amecameca  around 
to  the  west  will  serve  as  a  way  station 
for  one  who  means  to  climb  Popoca- 
tepetl. It  happened  that  I  went  up  on  the 
west  side  from  Amecameca.  This  account  of 
my  experience  will  lack  the  distinction  of  a 
first  ascent.  The  summit,  though  two  thou- 
sand feet  higher  than  the  highest  Alp,  has 
been  scaled  many  a  time  since  a  companion 
of  Fernando  Cortez  braved  its  then  unprece- 
dented height.  The  yawning  mouth  of  the 
drowsy  volcanic  monster,  which  we  entered, 
has  become  a  place  of  industry  for  human 
pygmies  like  ourselves;  the  sulphur  that  it 
spits  out  as  venom  is  an  article  of  commerce; 
and  stolid  Indians,  going  every  day  to  bring 
this  down,  think  the  ascent  as  commonplace 
as  any  other  hard  day's  toil.  Yet  if  you  ever 
make  it  you  will  probably  not  do  so  with  in- 
difference. Eighteen  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea,  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  surrounding 

190 


HIGHER    THAN    THE   ALPS 

plain,  and  shaped  for  all  the  world  like  the 
crown  of  a  high  sombrero,  with  snow  covering 
all  above  the  top  of  the  broad  band,  the 
"smoking  mountain"  will  never  be  lightly  ap- 
proached by  a  stranger,  it  is  safe  to  say,  un- 
less the  threatened  railroad  is  built.  Even 
if  limbs  are  good,  and  lungs  are  sound,  and 
heart  proves  equal  to  the  strain,  you  will  find 
the  task  one  to  be  reckoned  with. 

The  first  thing  is  to  get  on  speaking  terms 
with  the  giant.  "Popocatepetl"  it  is  written, 
but  that  is  not  enough  to  know.  The  natives 
call  it  Popo'ca  taypet'tle,  and,  as  has  been 
hinted,  it  means  "smoking  mountain."  It  be- 
longs to  the  primitive  tongue  of  the  Indians 
and  has  no  more  to  do  with  Spanish,  the  lan- 
guage of  Mexico  to-day,  than  old  Welsh 
names  in  Wales  with  the  modern  language  of 
Great  Britain.  If  you  cannot  manage  it  in 
its  full  bulk  and  weight,  call  it  "Popo,"  as 
tourists  do. 

A  letter  of  introduction  sent  forward  to  the 
ranch  some  five  thousand  feet  above,  brought 
the  overseer  down  at  a  smart  jog  with  pony 
and  pistols.  He  found  us  all  eating  in  a  res- 
taurant. The  moment  he  appeared  and  ad- 
dressed us  in  tolerable  English,  we  knew  that 

191 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

if  our  troubles  did  not  soon  begin  it  would  not 
be  his  fault.  Sufficiency  was  marked  all  over 
him.  He  helped  to  find  horses  and  guides, 
fix  prices,  and  arrange  for  supplies.  The 
typical  Mexican  ranchman,  by  the  way,  is  a 
gentleman,  a  born  fighter,  ambitious,  patri- 
otic, and  resourceful.  He  will  figure  largely 
as  the  animating  spirit  of  any  change  that 
may  come,  either  by  moral  influence  or  by 
force  of  arms. 

Next  morning,  the  women  of  the  party  hav- 
ing spent  the  night  packed  away  in  a  hotel 
that  was  too  small  for  them,  and  the  men  hav- 
ing slept  on  the  earth  floor  of  the  railway  sta- 
tion, our  young  rancher o  with  his  odd  cos- 
tume, wiry  figure,  light  air,  and  gay  songs  led 
the  way  out  of  town,  the  guides  trotting  along 
behind  and  occasionally  making  short  cuts. 
We  had  several  hours  of  travel  thus,  women 
and  men  alike  riding  our  beasts  in  the  way 
that  nature  intended.  About  four  o'clock  we 
reached  the  shanty,  whose  hospitality  we  were 
glad  to  find.  Senor  Perez,  for  our  guide  now 
became  our  host,  announced  that  here  we  were 
to  lodge.  And  indeed  night  already  began  to 
settle  upon  that  side  of  the  mountain.  Such 
is  the  angle  that  the  sun  seemed  scarcely  to 

192 


HIGHER   THAN    THE   ALPS 

have  entered  the  western  half  of  the  sky  be- 
fore it  hid  itself. 

We  had  seen  the  mountain  from  the  top  of 
the  old  Toltec  pyramid  of  Cholula;  we  had 
seen  it  through  notches  among  the  hills  where 
only  goats  and  Mexican  donkeys  could  keep 
footing  upon  the  trail;  we  had  viewed  it  in 
morning  and  in  evening  light  from  Chapul- 
tepec  and  from  the  arches  of  Cuernavaca. 
Some  of  us  were  to  look  down  upon  its  great 
surface  from  the  rim  at  the  top.  But  never 
did  it  make  the  breath  stop  and  the  heart 
grow  sick  with  a  feeling  that  could  not  be  con- 
trolled, as  when  we  looked,  straight  up  it 
seemed,  at  the  terrible  cold  height  in  the  last 
glow  of  that  afternoon  sun,  and  knew  that 
it  did  not  hang  over  us  more  nearly  than  did 
the  adventure  for  its  conquest  on  the  morrow. 

Nineteen  of  us,  and  Perez  with  a  partner 
and  friend,  making  twenty-one  in  all,  slept  as 
best  we  could  packed  around  one  small  room 
with  heads  toward  the  many  chinks  in  the  wall 
and  with  feet  toward  the  center.  The  circle 
was  not  complete;  for  at  one  corner  was  a 
rough  fireplace  discharging  most  of  its  smoke 
into  the  room.  The  chinks,  though  they  ad- 
mitted enough  cutting  blades  of  air, 'seemed 

193 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

not  to  let  much  of  the  smoke  escape.  We  lay 
in  our  clothes,  of  course,  and  in  whatever 
extra  blankets  we  had,  for  at  that  height  of 
13,000  feet  the  air  at  night  is  cruel  to  one 
who  has  spent  months  in  the  mild  climate  of 
the  plateau.  Our  shoes  only  we  removed,  as 
no  one  wished  to  awake  with  swollen  and 
aching  feet. 

At  three  in  the  morning  we  rose,  and  at 
five  were  started.  Should  any  one  be  curious 
as  to  how  the  two  hours  between  had  been 
spent,  some  of  our  party  could  answer  for  the 
employment  of  them.  In  the  numbing,  blis- 
tering, altogether  strange  cold  of  that  lofty 
air,  we  had  spent  most  of  the  time  helping  to 
catch  a  stray  horse,  identifying  horses  and 
saddles  that  each  person  as  far  as  possible 
might  have  his  own  of  the  day  before,  adjust- 
ing girths  that  stiffened  fingers  refused  to 
manage,  and  calling  down  blessings  on  the 
guides,  no  one  of  whom  was  more  useful  for 
such  matters  than  a  sheep.  On  the  whole 
perhaps  they  were  worth  what  they  received; 
each  member  of  our  party  was  to  pay,  for 
horse  and  guide  during  three  days,  the  sum  of 
eight  dollars,  Mexican  money,  or  four  dollars 
in  our  own. 

194. 


HIGHER    THAN    THE    ALPS 

Finally  we  mounted.  Those  of  us  who  had 
been  martyrs  for  the  rest  were  chattering  with 
cold.  More  than  half  had  been  sickened  by 
the  smoke  or  some  other  cause.  No  one  had 
eaten  much  breakfast,  as  it  is  against  all  ad- 
vice. Yet  some,  of  course,  were  mgre  cheer- 
ful than  others.  Part  of  these  were  to  be 
among  the  first  "quitters." 

We  rode  our  horses  to  the  snow  line,  four- 
teen thousand  feet  high  in  the  month  of  Janu- 
ary, and  there  left  them.  Some  were  almost 
exhausted,  so  that  they  had  been  brought 
along  only  by  leading  and  coaxing.  All  suf- 
fered from  the  cold,  as  they  were  accustomed 
to  the  plains  below.  Persons  who  knew  said 
that  going  much  beyond  this  point  would  be 
fatal  to  them. 

Henceforth  it  was  to  be  real  climbing.  The 
zigzag  path  was  easy  to  follow  with  the  eye, 
but  painfully  hard  for  already  lagging  feet. 
However,  we  kept  along.  I  myself  felt  no 
other  distress  than  this  sensation  of  labor  and 
a  continued  rebellion  in  my  stomach. 

After  what  seemed  a  very  long  time  of  our 
starting  and  halting,  the  sun  came  up  out  of 
the  low  country  and  showed  itself.  The  angle 
from  us  was  as  if  we  viewed  a  cartwheel  from 

195 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

a  church  steeple.  Such  a  phenomenon  in  itself 
would  have  been  curious  enough  to  pay  for 
some  effort.  But  we  were  bent  upon  other 
things,  those  who  still  held  out,  so  we  gave  it 
very  brief  attention.  Adjusting  our  colored 
glasses,  for  we  had  been  warned  against  the 
glare  of  a  tropical  sun  upon  the  snow,  we 
thrust  our  sandals  into  the  path  and  kept  on. 

By  this  time  it  was  pure  doggedness  with 
the  best  of  us,  and  we  had  reached  an  altitude 
of  some  sixteen  thousand  feet.  As  the  snow 
began  to  melt,  the  difficulty  was  increased. 
Often  our  foothold  gave  way  so  that  the  des- 
perate climbing  of  a  full  long  minute  was  lost 
by  a  single  slip.  The  need  of  stopping  to  rest 
became  more  and  more  frequent.  One  man, 
indeed,  a  physician,  about  fifty  years  old,  had 
been  obliged  from  the  first  to  lie  down  every 
few  feet.  Now  he  was  far  below  most  of  us 
and  it  seemed  useless  for  him  to  think  even  of 
reaching  where  we  were.  Yet  he  kept  on. 

When  we  were  two-thirds  of  the  way  up 
my  nausea,  which  I  had  attributed  to  the 
smoke,  left  me.  The  chief  cause  of  this  feel- 
ing is  doubtless  inequality  of  pressure  upon 
the  organs,  and  particularly  failure  of  the 
heart  to  adjust  itself  to  lessened  resistance 

196 


HIGHER    THAN    THE    ALPS 

upon  the  arteries.  One  authority  says  that 
bubbles  form  in  the  blood-vessels.  With  some 
climbers  mere  weariness  probably  accounts 
for  more  than  they  are  aware. 

Whatever  had  been  the  cause  of  my  own 
ills,  they  were  all  forgotten  when  the  break  in 
the  everlasting  curve  was  actually  seen;  and 
when  we  had  won  the  battle  I  felt  like  a  war- 
horse.  Others  apparently  were  as  much 
elated,  though  some  postal  cards  that  we 
wrote  did  prove  rather  shaky. 

Most  of  us  carried  our  own  blankets, 
barometers,  and  lunch-boxes  all  the  way. 
After  mere  "Oh's!"  and  "Ah's!"  of  general 
admiration,  we  attended  first  to  the  lunch- 
boxes,  and  afterward  to  the  barometer  and 
similar  matters. 

The  crater  of  Popocatepetl  is  at  the  very 
middle  of  the  perfect  dome.  Its  rim  is  un- 
broken all  around  and  is  of  nearly  equal 
height,  though  the  side  at  which  we  looked 
over  is  a  little  lower  than  the  other.  It  was 
topped  then  by  a  smooth  abrupt  wall  of  hard 
snow  about  six  feet  high.  From  side  to  side 
it  is  fully  six  hundred  yards — surprisingly 
large.  It  is  more  than  five  hundred  feet  deep 
and  some  two  hundred  yards  wide  at  the  bot- 

197 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

torn,  where  there  is  a  sulphur  lake.  The  color 
of  this  is  green — not  greenish  like  sea  water, 
but  green. 

At  several  points  in  the  side  of  the  old 
crater  are  little  holes  as  large  as  a  man's 
wrist,  from  which  sulphur  smoke  issues  with 
an  unpleasant  hissing  noise.  All  the  sides  of 
the  crater  are  decidedly  warm,  though  not  too 
hot  to  touch.  We  went  down  some  little  dis- 
tance. We  measured,  guessed,  commented, 
gazed,  and  wondered. 

Then  we  started  toward  the  world  again. 
When  we  were  ten  minutes  downward,  which 
would  mean  a  good  hour's  distance  in  the  op- 
posite direction,  we  met  Perez  with  the  doctor 
and  a  school  teacher  in  tow.  He  afterward 
succeeded  in  landing  them  at  the  top,  though 
not  within  the  hour. 

Thus  far  scenic  effects  have  hardly  been 
mentioned.  During  the  grim  effort  to  get 
up  we  took  little  notice  of  them,  beyond  mar- 
veling at  the  sunrise  so  far  below  us.  When 
at  the  summit,  we  could  see  less  than  must  at 
times  be  possible,  for  there  were  cloud  masses 
lower  down.  The  impression  of  distance  is 
not  so  great  as  on  one  New  England  moun- 
tain of  local  celebrity  which  rises  a  thousand 

198 


HIGHER    THAN    THE   ALPS 

feet  above  its  surroundings.  From  such  a 
petty  height  every  distance  and  bulk  is  appre- 
ciated, and  level  fields  seem  to  be  very  far  be- 
low. They  are  not  too  far  to  seem  far.  But 
from  old  Popo  the  eye  cannot  measure  by 
anything.  Everything  is  gigantic  and  in 
equality  of  proportion,  for  the  things  below 
which  are  not  gigantic  are  lost  altogether. 
Yet  the  clouds  and  the  snow,  and  the  colors 
upon  both,  and  the  shapes  of  mountains,  and 
the  blue  of  the  upper  sky  (for  there  is  a 
lower  sky  also,  to  one  who  climbs) — all  this 
gives  a  feeling  not  easily  to  be  described  nor 
soon  forgotten.  Two  other  snow-capped 
mountains  stood  in  view  above  the  vapors: 
Orizaba,  a  few  feet  higher  than  Popo,  and 
Ixtaccihuatl,  not  quite  so  high.  The  valleys 
were  so  full  of  dense,  perfectly  white  and 
level-lying  clouds  that  it  seemed  every  time 
we  looked  as  if  we  could  sit  upon  a  straw  mat 
and  slide  down  the  snow,  across  the  snowy 
cloud  reaches,  and  up  the  other  side. 

Most  of  the  party  did  slide  down  on  the 
snow  crust,  but  two  of  us  were  obliged  to 
walk  for  lack  of  a  man  with  an  iron-bound 
stick  to  steer  the  craft.  We  walked  when  we 
did  not  run  or  sprawl,  the  guides  calling  after 

199 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

us,  "Despacito"  ("A  teeny  bit  slow!")  at 
every  jump  or  slip.  Their  caution  was  wise, 
no  doubt,  but  we  had  lost  all  respect  for  them. 
We  brought  on  ourselves  more  local  soreness 
of  muscles  from  this  coming  down  than  from 
going  up;  but  we  enjoyed  the  descent  and  ar- 
rived at  the  snow  line  soon  after  those  who 
slid.  In  another  half-hour  we  were  at  the 
shanty. 

The  only  visible  mementos  of  the  ascent 
that  I  took  with  me  were  my  sandals,  which 
weeks  afterward  I  threw  away  in  despair  for 
the  bad  odor  of  the  native-tanned  leather,  and 
a  small  piece  of  sulphur,  which  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  giving  to  Mr.  William  Jennings 
Bryan  next  day  in  a  railway  train.  For  cir- 
cumstantial evidence  that  our  party  did  make 
this  journey,  therefore,  I  can  now  point  only 
to  the  mountain  itself.  Any  investigating 
person  will  find  that  it  stands  there  in  actual- 
ity, just  as  I  have  said. 

Our  goggles  had  not  prevented  some  cases 
of  inflammation  from  the  glare,  and  sunburn 
is  a  mild  word  for  what  we  suffered;  but  on 
the  whole  the  hardships  and  difficulties  were 
not  so  great  as  we  had  thought  possible,  for 
they  were  all  such  that  we  got  over  them. 

200 


HIGHER    THAN    THE    ALPS 

Popocatepetl,  smooth,  even  dome  that  it  is,  is 
doubtless  one  of  the  easiest  mountains  on  the 
globe  upon  which  to  reach  so  great  a  height. 
There  are  no  glaciers,  no  treacherous  ravines, 
none  of  the  special  terrors  that  attend  moun- 
tain climbing  elsewhere.  One's  trying  experi- 
ences are  likely  to  arise  for  the  most  part 
from  within.  However,  he  must  be  a  hard- 
ened climber  indeed  to  whom  the  ascent  would 
appear  commonplace. 


201 


IT  would  be  resented  by  enthusiasts  for 
each  town  if  I  should  say  that  Morelia,  to 
the  northeast  of  Mexico  City,  in  the  state 
of  Michoacan,  and  Guadalajara,  three  times 
its  size,  in  the  state  of  Jalisco,  look  in  any 
way  alike ;  that  there  are  no  differences  worth 
noting  between  Guanajuato  and  Queretaro, 
capitals  of  two  neighboring  states  of  the  same 
names  to  the  north  of  the  Federal  District; 
or  that  between  Aguas  Calientes  and  San 
Luis  Potosi,  similarly  related  to  two  states  in 
the  next  tier  northward,  though  still  four  hun- 
dred miles  from  the  border,  one  might  be  at  a 
loss  to  distinguish.  There  are  differences  in 
setting,  altitude,  latitude,  mean  temperature, 
numerical  population,  and  chief  industries. 
Guadalajara  has  for  sale  its  famous  pottery, 
and  Aguas  Calientes  its  even  better  known 
Mexican  drawn- work  on  linen.  Guanajuato 
has  its  mint  and  its  mines  which  do  add  land- 


TOWNS   AND    MORE    TOWNS 

marks  to  the  surrounding  hillsides,  its  really 
splendid  theater,  and  its  gruesome  catacombs. 
In  Queretaro  they  will  show  you  a  chapel  on 
the  site  of  Maximilian's  execution,  and  the 
church  of  Santa  Rosa  which  claimed  the  en- 
thusiastic praise  of  Charles  Dudley  Warner 
for  its  unsurpassed  wood  carving,  its  wealth 
of  gold  leaf  decoration,  and  its  beautiful 
paintings.  There  are  the  features  of  local 
pride  and  interest;  but  after  all  a  description 
of  one  town,  as  seen  by  a  northerner,  would 
read  very  much  like  the  description  of  an- 
other. One  tires  of  those  worthies,  Cortez 
and  Maximilian,  after  a  time.  If,  as  in  the 
Queretaro  church,  one  learns  that  a  superb 
altar  piece  was  burned,  not  from  public  neces- 
sity, as  Juarez  ordered  many  things  de- 
stroyed, but  by  the  French  in  mere  greed  and 
wantonness,  one's  flagging  interest  revives. 
It  is  always  stimulating  to  have  something 
that  one  can  resent. 

On  the  whole,  even  the  tourist  is  likely  to 
imbibe  something  of  the  quiescent  mood  of 
the  country.  It  is  not  inherent  and  peculiar 
to  Mexicans;  the  animals  have  it.  Though 
very  little  of  a  horseman,  I  have  ridden  young 
stallions  in  Mexico  as  unhesitatingly  as  I 

203 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

would  ride  old  Dobbin  on  the  New  England 
farm,  and  with  as  little  danger.  I  have  gone 
through  yards  full  of  mules,  and  suffered  no 
harm.  They  clatter  in  strings  along  the  high- 
ways without  a  strap  except  the  girth  of  the 
pack  saddle,  and  driven  by  one  small  boy  for 
a  dozen  or  twenty  mules.  I  never  saw  one 
show  signs  of  viciousness.  One  will  kick, 
naturally,  if  he  gets  his  leg  over  a  chain  trace. 
Bulls  are  driven  along  the  roads  by  children; 
at  different  times,  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  I 
have  passed  scores  and  they  always  gave  me 
the  road.  The  explanation  I  have  never 
heard.  One  man  says  it  is  in  the  breeding; 
but  why  should  breeding  have  happened  to 
affect  them  all  so — horses,  mules,  cattle?  An- 
other asserts  that  it  is  in  the  fodder — one  feed- 
ing a  day  of  barley  and  barley  straw  will  not 
make  an  animal  very  spirited,  he  says.  But 
on  this  same  fodder  the  animals  show  remark- 
able strength  and  endurance  and  keep  in  con- 
dition if  otherwise  well  treated.  Neither  do 
they  show  absence  of  life  in  its  harmless 
demonstrations.  The  peculiarity  is  not  due  to 
uniformly  humane  treatment  I  can  vouch,  nor 
can  animals  be  cowed  by  any  crueler  treat- 
ment there  than  some  receive  in  the  United 

204 


TOWNS    AND    MORE    TOWNS 

States.  Rattlesnakes  around  Lake  Chapala 
almost  never  bite.  It  must  be  "the  Mexican 
habit,"  which,  contrary  to  the  usual  idea,  is 
non-aggressive.  The  tourist  gets  it,  and  be- 
comes willing  to  sit  in  the  central  park  of  any 
typical  Mexican  town — the  park  is  always 
there — and  let  life  pass  by  for  his  delectation 
or  enlightenment.  This  experience  is  about 
the  same  in  any  of  the  places  mentioned. 

There  is  a  town,  Pachuca,  that  deserves 
special  description  as  unique.  It  has  a  park, 
but  it  has  an  almost  perpetual  cold  wind,  and 
frequent  storms  that  make  sitting  in  the  park 
an  uneasy  enjoyment.  It  is  in  the  bottom  of 
a  cup,  with  only  one  low  side,  toward  Mexico 
City,  from  which  three  railroads  come  out  the 
sixty  miles  and  terminate.  Down  the  sides  of 
this  cup,  in  the  rainy  season,  the  water  rushes 
till  the  streets,  flooded  from  all  sides,  become 
rivers.  Through  a  little  gap  in  the  high  wall 
the  northern  winds  drive  with  violence.  In 
the  dry  season  only  a  few  years  ago  men  killed 
each  other  quarreling  over  a  bucketful  of 
water.  Now  the  water  of  a  beautiful  moun- 
tain lake  has  been  piped  into  town  and  the 
poor  who  cannot  have  it  in  their  houses  may 
draw  it  from  public  hydrants,  except  when 

205 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

the  Governor  has  diverted  too  much  to  his 
private  fields  and  gardens.  Still,  in  the  dry 
season  there  is  cause  enough  to  look  eagerly 
for  rains.  Every  wind  bears  clouds  of  blind- 
ing and  pestilential  dust,  and  the  whole  sur- 
rounding of  the  place  is  a  desert. 

In  the  rainy  season,  from  May  to  Septem- 
ber, visited  with  the  other  extreme,  people 
pray  for  the  freshets  to  cease.  Every  morning 
is  an  amethyst  above  and  an  emerald  under 
foot;  but  every  afternoon  the  clouds  blacken 
and  the  floods  come.  Market  women  have 
been  drowned  in  the  streets. 

Forty  thousand  people  live  here,  including 
perhaps  a  hundred  Americans  and  the  rem- 
nants of  a  colony  of  Cornish  miners — tin 
miners  they  were  in  Cornwall — who  lived  here 
for  thirty  or  forty  years.  One  by  one  the 
Cornish  families  are  going  back  home  now  to 
live  henceforth  on  what  Mexico  has  bestowed. 
And  what  makes  the  place?  Silver.  Silver 
and  pulque.  The  only  crop  grown  with  any 
large  success  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
is  the  maguey,  from  which  the  national  intoxi- 
cant is  made.  One  English  millionaire  owes  a 
large  part  of  his  fortune  to  his  activity  in 
pulque,  and  there  are  several  members  of  his 

206 


TOWNS   AND    MORE    TOWNS 

family  personally  the  worse  for  too  much  use 
of  it.  Maguey  was  grown  by  the  Indians  be- 
fore the  Spaniards  came,  but  silver  is  the 
chief  local  interest.  There  are  about  three 
hundred  mines  in  the  vicinity  and  some  of 
them  have  been  worked  since  early  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  till  the  output  must  be  esti- 
mated in  billions  of  dollars.  The  claim  marks, 
the  piles  of  tepetate  (refuse),  the  yawning 
mouths  of  tunnels,  and  the  curious  mine  build- 
ings lend  variety  to  the  precipitous  hillsides. 
The  silver  that  they  yielded,  until  a  few  years 
ago,  went  the  sixty  miles  to  Mexico  by  stage 
or  mule  train.  As  late  as  1901  there  was  no 
bank,  and  paper  money  was  unfamiliar.  The 
Mexican  silver  dollar,  the  peso,  then  worth 
about  forty-three  cents,  was  almost  the  only 
familiar  unit  of  value,  and  a  man  who  had  a 
month's  salary  about  him,  unless  poorly  paid, 
was  grievously  burdened.  It  was  no  uncom- 
mon sight  to  see  a  servant  accompanying 
some  one  on  his  way  to  a  business  appoint- 
ment literally  staggering  under  a  load  of  dol- 
lars. It  is  not  quite  true  to  say  that  this  dol- 
lar was  or  is  the  only  familiar  unit.  It  is  the 
official  unit,  the  unit  in  business.  But  the 
market  women  cannot  reckon  in  pesos  nor  in 

207 


A   MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

centavos.  They  hold  by  the  old  Spanish 
scheme  of  real  (shilling),  half -real,  and  quar- 
ter-real,  which  runs  into  fractions.  This, 
however,  little  irks  them,  for  they  sell  only  a 
real's  or  a  cuartillo's  worth  at  a  time.  If  you 
want  five  times  the  amount,  you  repeat  the 
transaction  five  times.  It  is  forbidden  to  buy 
or  sell  merchandise  by  any  but  the  metric 
units  or  to  reckon  money  by  other  than  the 
decimal  system.  A  weighing  scale  cannot  be 
imported  unless  with  whatever  other  markings 
it  may  have  it  bears  the  metric  scheme  of 
grammes,  kilogrammes,  etc.  In  the  markets 
the  law  is  relaxed,  seeing  that  it  is  hard  for 
the  common  people  to  change,  but  in  shops  it 
is  usually  enforced.  An  inspector  of  weights 
and  measures  was  in  a  small  drygoods  place 
when  a  boy  asked  for  a  vara  (about  a  yard) 
of  cloth.  "We  sell  it  by  the  meter,  thirty 
centavos"  said  the  proprietor.  "But  I  don't 
know  meter"  protested  the  boy;  "how  much 
would  a  vara  be?"  "Well,  a  vara  would  be 
about  twenty-five  centavos"  vouchsafed  the 
man.  The  boy  asked  for  a  vara,  paid  twenty- 
five  centavos,  and  went  out.  "You  are  fined," 
said  the  inspector,  "for  selling  cloth  by  the 
vara"  "How  much  am  I  fined?"  asked  the 

208 


TOWNS    AND    MORE    TOWNS 

shopkeeper.  "Twenty  reales"  pronounced 
the  inspector,  half  severely,  half  indulgently. 
"But  you  have  imposed  my  fine  in  reales"  ex- 
claimed the  shopkeeper,  "and  therefore  you 
also  are  fined."  Both  men  laughed,  neither 
fine  was  paid,  and  the  inspector  afterward 
told  me  the  story  on  himself. 


209 


XVII 

A   RIDE   TO    REGLA 

AT  ten  one  morning,  though  six  would 
have  been  a  better  time,  we  left  Pa- 
chuca  on  two  hired  horses,  bound  for 
Regla.     An  hour's  riding  over  the  famous 
road  to  Real  del  Monte,  along  which  many  a 
fabulous  fortune  of  silver  has  gone  by  mule- 
cart  and  whose  sharp  turns  have  witnessed 
many  a  bold  bandit  adventure,  then  a  short 
canter  across  a  flat,  and  we  came  to  "the 
Real." 

A  little  way  back  we  had  seen  a  man  wear- 
ing a  blanket  that  we  coveted  for  its  rich 
colors  and  its  characteristic  Mexican  design. 
Now,  as  we  dismounted,  he  was  coming  into 
sight,  and  I  went  to  greet  him,  with  some  com- 
pliments regarding  the  blanket.  He  was 
soon  prompted  to  offer  it  for  ten  pesos  (five 
dollars)  and  to  explain  how  an  old  woman 
among  the  mountains  of  Puebla  had  woven  it 
for  him.  For  eight  pesos,  after  some  argu- 

210 


A    RIDE    TO    REGLA 

ment,  the  blanket  was  bought.  It  was  well 
bundled  and  well  wrapped,  as  its  condition 
required,  but  we  were  sure  that  after  thorough 
washing  it  would  come  out  as  beautiful  as  an 
Oriental  rug,  nor  were  we  to  be  disappointed. 
Perhaps  we  ought  to  have  paid  the  ten  pesos, 
but  we  were  not  clear  about  it  and  there  was 
no  one  to  arbitrate. 

Having  greeted  the  native  Protestant  pas- 
tor and  his  wife,  we  went  up  the  street  a  few 
doors  to  take  dinner  with  "Aunt  Mary,"  a 
good  soul  whose  title  of  affection  had  become 
so  familiar  among  English  and  American 
miners  for  fifty  miles  around  that  she  was 
scarcely  known,  even  at  the  post  office,  by  any 
other  name,  and  all  the  shopkeepers  had 
learned  to  call  her  by  the  Spanish  equivalent, 
"Za  tia  Maria."  More  than  twenty  years  she 
had  remained  in  this  place,  ten  thousand  feet 
high,  where  husband  and  brothers,  miners  all, 
had  lost  their  lives,  and  where  she  was  soon 
to  end  her  own,  though  we  did  not  know  that 
the  present  meal  was  the  last  we  should  have 
with  her.  So,  here  and  there,  no  doubt  there 
are  many  solitary  foreign  women  who  stay  to 
do  good  in  a  land  where  they  have  suffered. 

The  hottest  two  hours  of  the  day  being 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

over,  we  took  leave  of  "Aunt  Mary,"  made 
our  little  contribution  toward  the  charities 
that  she  was  dispensing  every  day  from  slen- 
der means,  and  joined  the  friendly  minister, 
who  was  going  toward  Regla  as  far  as  Ve- 
lasco.  Pleasant  chatting  carried  us  through 
Omitlan  to  his  destination,  a  little  farm  vil- 
lage among  the  mountains. 

Cornish  "pasties,"  strong  tea,  and  saffron 
cake  full  of  plums,  all  pressed  upon  us  by  the 
bountiful  fftia  Maria"  at  noontime,  now  in- 
clined us  more  to  repose  than  to  exertion. 
Rain,  also,  began  to  threaten,  and  we  hesi- 
tated. Soon,  however,  we  were  to  leave  the 
republic,  and  Regla,  so  long  heard  about, 
might  remain  by  us  forever  unvisited.  So 
we  kept  on  through  San  Antonio,  turning  to 
the  right  from  that  hamlet  to  an  interesting 
and  beautiful  blue  lake,  the  Ojo  de  Agua. 
We  retraced  to  San  Antonio  and  took  the  op- 
posite direction  to  Regla,  arriving  there  at  a 
quarter  before  five  o'clock, 

When  we  reached  the  gate  of  an  old  haci- 
enda it  was  with  half  a  feeling  of  distrust  that 
we  entered,  being  told  that  so  we  could  best 
see  the  noted  falls.  Inside  and  at  the  left  of 
the  entrance  is  a  venerable  chapel.  At  the 


A    RIDE    TO    REGLA 

right  of  the  entrance  is  an  exceedingly  quaint 
garden  with  steps  leading  up  to  a  quainter 
balcony,  which  runs  along  the  side  of  a  great 
nondescript  building  and  terminates  in  some- 
thing like  a  conservatory.  Clearly  there  are 
living  apartments  beyond  that,  and  pleasant 
they  must  be.  From  the  office  a  courteous 
Spanish-looking  young  man  came  out,  invited 
us  to  dismount,  and  told  us  that  we  could 
reach  the  falls  only  by  walking.  He  fur- 
nished us  a  guide  with  keys  and  we  started 
along  a  way  which  presently  became  a  tunnel, 
then  an  arched  and  vaulted  succession  of 
underground  chambers  where  smelting  ap- 
pears to  have  been  done,  then,  emerging 
again  after  we  had  despaired  of  it,  opened 
into  a  path  along  the  edge  of  a  ravine.  Our 
guide  told  us  naively  that  the  subterranean 
passage  was  haunted,  but  that  he  himself  had 
never  seen  anything  ghostly.  He  assured  us, 
however,  that  it  is  "una  cosa  muy  espantosa" 
(a  very  frightful  thing). 

Moving  along  the  ravine,  we  came  at  last 
to  a  sight  of  two  high  natural  walls,  approach- 
ing each  other  at  an  angle;  and  gurgling  and 
plunging  down  between  them  at  their  point 
of  greatest  nearness,  a  waterfall.  This,  though 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

not  wonderful  in  size  or  height,  is  a  joyful 
thing  to  look  at,  and  would  in  itself  have  re- 
paid us  for  the  journey.  What  attracted  our 
attention  most  was  the  columns  that  form 
the  two  rocky  converging  walls.  They  are 
nearly  perfect  hexagonal  prisms,  basaltic  in 
the  popular  sense,  whether  or  not  in  the 
mineralogist's  definition,  and  about  three  and 
one-half  feet  in  diameter.  Their  height  was 
not  easy  to  determine,  but  I  judged  it  to  be 
some  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  Most  remark- 
able, I  think,  is  a  broken  formation  by  which 
at  one  place  not  the  sides  but  the  smooth  ends 
of  the  prisms  are  exposed  to  view,  though  con- 
siderably inclined  upward.  To  the  right  and 
left  of  these  are  columns  that  stand  erect,  and 
above  them  are  short  stumps  that  are  also  per- 
fectly upright. 

The  hacienda,  church,  and  connected  dwell- 
ings were  built  about  a  hundred  years  ago 
by  the  famous  Count  of  Regla.  The  cost  of 
construction  may  have  been  millions  of  dol- 
lars. Hours  would  be  well  spent  in  exploring 
the  place,  for  which  we  had  only  minutes.  This 
Count  of  Regla  was  the  rich  man  who  en- 
dowed the  National  Pawn  Shop  of  Mexico. 
He  it  was  who  lent  the  Spanish  crown  a  mil- 


A    RIDE    TO    REGLA 

lion  pesos  and  offered  if  the  king  would  visit 
him  to  pave  the  coach  road  with  silver  for  his 
coming. 

Again  on  horseback,  having  given  our 
thanks  to  the  Spanish-looking  young  man  and 
our  peseta  to  the  guide,  we  started  homeward. 

The  country  from  Regla  to  Omitlan  is  as 
unlike  the  barren  Pachuca  plain  and  hillsides 
as  could  well  be.  Cattle  are  grazing,  crops 
are  growing  luxuriantly,  the  road  has  a  con- 
sistency of  genuine  earth  under  foot,  and  there 
is  green  everywhere.  The  peasants'  huts  are 
cleaner  and  much  more  comfortable,  the 
simple  costumes  of  carriers  and  donkey  driv- 
ers give  signs  of  acquaintance  with  water, 
here  and  there  are  little  shady  groves  where 
rabbits  skip;  and  all  is  a  picture  of  simple, 
rural  prosperity.  Velasco  and  Omitlan,  but 
for  the  Indian  blankets  and  wide  hats  and  the 
low  style  of  buildings,  are  like  contented,  hill- 
surrounded  farm  villages  at  home. 

One  slope  as  we  came  along  startled  us  by 
what  seemed  to  be  multitudes  of  glaring 
lights.  They  proved  to  be  the  points  of  a 
thousand  maguey  plants,  wet  with  a  little 
shower  that  was  all  the  outcome  of  earlier 
cloudy  threatenings,  and  now  all  aglow  with 

215 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

red  reflection  from  the  setting  sun.  I  had 
seen  windows  lighted  up  so,  but  never  any- 
thing in  nature.  The  flash  of  a  thousand 
polished  spears  could  not  have  been  more 
brilliant. 

A  maguey  field  has  other  beautiful  phases. 
One  that  I  must  mention  belongs  not  to  the 
cultivated  field  but  to  the  native  growth  on 
many  a  hillside.  It  occurs  when  a  sprout 
twenty  to  thirty  feet  high  has  shot  up  from 
the  heart  of  each  mature  plant  and  burst  into 
wonderful  bloom,  when  the  morning  damp  is 
on  them  all,  and  when  thousands  of  humming- 
birds of  different  varieties,  like  small  animate 
jewels,  dart  to  and  fro  among  them.  The 
field  that  we  were  now  passing  was,  of  course, 
not  under  cultivation  for  beauty;  and  its  yield 
would  be  taken  before  it  could  ever  blossom. 

Still  later,  for  night  was  approaching,  we 
looked  through  the  notch  in  the  mountains  be- 
yond which  we  knew  was  Real  del  Monte,  and 
saw  framed  between  their  dark  masses  that 
beautiful  constellation,  the  Southern  Cross, 
which  has  an  additional  charm  for  the  fancy 
because  from  our  latitude  at  home  it  is  never 
seen.  This  cluster  of  beacons  was  before  us 
continually  as  we  galloped  along  the  shadowy 

216 


A    RIDE    TO    REGLA 

roads  for  an  hour,  finally  slacking  rein  and 
breath  within  a  few  moments'  ride  of  "the 
Heal."  On  Saturday  night  there  is  just 
enough  chance  of  slightly  unpleasant  encoun- 
ters to  make  a  spice  in  the  after  recollection. 
Twenty  years  ago  all  this  neighborhood  was 
thoroughly  infested  by  bandits.  Babes  have 
grown  to  manhood  in  the  villages  since  then, 
however,  without  knowing  any  worse  fear 
than  of  some  drunken  miner  who  might  give 
trouble.  True,  this  argues  that  the  hand  of 
Diaz  at  his  prime  was  steady  and  strong;  but 
it  argues  more  than  that.  It  is  proof  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  Mexican  citizens  in  places 
like  this  desire  order  and  quiet,  and  given 
proper  firmness  in  controlling  the  few  unruly 
spirits  that  always  appear  in  a  mining  coun- 
try, they  will  live  together  as  peacefully  as 
good  citizens  anywhere. 

A  little  before  eight  o'clock  we  were  again 
with  our  friends  in  their  pretty  flower-hidden 
parsonage,  where  we  were  to  spend  the  night. 

An  incident  of  one  trip  to  Real  del  Monte 
has  always  returned  to  me  with  peculiar 
pathos.  On  a  high  hill  overlooking  "The 
Real,"  where  it  can  be  seen  for  miles  around, 
Js  the  cemetery  of  the  English  people  of  Pa- 
in 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

chuca  and  Real  del  Monte,  enclosed  by  a  white 
wall.  It  has  been  there  now  for  more  than  a 
generation,  and  there  are  graves  enough  to 
keep  each  other  company.  I  happened  along 
as  a  child's  funeral  was  approaching  and 
waited  to  attend.  From  the  foot  of  the  hill 
the  coffin  is  always  carried  up  by  two  sets  of 
bearers,  alternating  as  often  as  they  need.  No 
hired  person  ever  touches  a  shovel  to  a  grave. 
All  such  labor  is  performed  by  friends  and 
neighbors,  which  is  peculiarly  significant  in 
this  country  where  no  white  man  does  manual 
work.  On  this  particular  occasion  all  the 
children  of  the  colony,  between  fifty  and  a 
hundred,  attended,  dressed  in  black  and  white 
and  carrying  wreaths.  While  no  lover  of 
funerals,  I  have  remembered  this  one  as  sig- 
nifying the  group  unity  of  fellow-countrymen 
in  a  strange  land.  I  felt  as  if  something  al- 
most traitorous  were  being  done  when  last 
spring,  ten  years  later,  I  found  all  the  pros- 
perous families  of  the  colony  going  home.  A 
rather  melancholy  fact  for  the  less  prosperous 
who  remain !  They  will  become  identified  with 
the  new  American  colony  that  is  growing  up, 
and  as  a  consoling  tie  some  of  their  former 
neighbors  will  still  be  represented  by  sons  and 

218 


A    RIDE    TO    REGLA 

daughters  to  whom  England  is  not  home, 
and  who,  though  jealously  claiming  citizen- 
ship as  Britons,  find  that  they  cannot  be 
happy  away  from  the  land  of  their  birth. 
Strange  ramifications  of  interest  and  senti- 
ment indeed,  come  of  life  in  a  foreign 
country. 


XVIII 

THE   WEST   AND   NORTH 

f"  IT^WO  young  friends  of  mine  who  were 
going  from  eastern  New  York  to  Mex- 
ico thought  California  so  little  out  of 
their  way  that  they  would  be  foolish  not  to 
include  it  in  their  journey,  which  they  did. 
They  got  a  check  cashed  in  San  Francisco  and 
made  a  new  beginning;  a  railway  ticket  to 
Mexico  City  costs  more  from  San  Francisco 
than  from  Toronto.  To  infer  that  Mexico 
has  a  long  coast  line  on  the  west  will  not  be 
going  astray.  Those  who  are  fresh  from 
school  geography  will  disdain  the  weakness  of 
mere  inference  here;  and  you  may  feel  about 
equally  superior  if  you  have  lately  referred 
to  a  map.  My  friends  were  describing  almost 
an  equilateral  triangle,  so  that  after  three 
thousand  miles  of  travel  they  found  them- 
selves little  nearer  their  destination  than 
before. 

Maps  and  other  sources  of  indirect  knowl- 
220 


THE    WEST    AND    NORTH 

edge  are  likely  to  play  a  larger  part  in  our 
acquaintance  with  the  rest  of  the  republic. 
Whoever  has  gone  over  as  much  ground  as 
we  have  now  covered  and  does  not  find  his 
allotted  time  well  toward  its  end,  is  no  mere 
winter  tourist.  He  may  be  the  prospective 
author  of  some  first-hand  studies  among  the 
aborigines  of  "Unknown  Mexico,"  or  of  inves- 
tigations concerning  the  economic  and  social 
conditions  which  have  lately  been  character- 
ized under  the  strong  phrase,  "Barbarous 
Mexico,"  or  of  learned  disquisitions  on  fauna 
and  flora,  on  geology,  or  archaeology,  or  what 
not.  He  may  be  an  intending  settler,  a  pros- 
pector or  a  dawdler.  Whatever  he  is,  he  may 
be  well  enough  in  his  way;  but  to  the  brisk 
and  somewhat  careless  traveler  he  is  of  course 
no  companion. 

Toward  home  then  we  shall  be  gradually 
making  our  way,  alert  for  any  thought  of 
somebody  else  that  may  help  us  to  generalize, 
sympathetic  and  intelligent  now  toward  many 
things  that  a  little  while  back  we  dismissed 
simply  as  barbarous,  by  an  insidious  process 
turned  students  of  prosaic  books  of  reference 
during  odd  hours  upon  train  or  in  hotel,  find- 
ing nothing  dull  which  broadens  our  acquaint- 


A   MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

ance  with  this  country  of  our  travel.  It  has 
become  the  way  of  the  three  months'  visitor 
"to  love  that  well  which  he  must  leave  ere 
long." 

Western  Mexico  has  two  beautiful  lakes 
which  might  have  been  named  along  with  the 
cities  of  Morelia  and  Guanajuato  some  time 
ago.  One  is  Patzcuaro,  dutifully  described 
by  almost  every  writer  because  of  the  paint- 
ing of  the  Descent  from  the  Cross  at  Tzin- 
tzuntzan  attributed  to  Titian,  Cabrera,  Ibarra, 
and  other  great  or  lesser  artists.  The  second 
lake,  Chapala,  is  the  largest  in  Mexico  and 
the  most  popular  for  vacations.  Both  lakes 
are  full  of  fish  and  haunted  by  game  and  song 
birds.  Both  are  high  and  have  a  delightful 
climate. 

Among  the  sierras  of  the  west  live  tribes  of 
Indians  acknowledging  no  allegiance  to  the 
Mexican  government,  little  touched  by  any  re- 
ligion except  that  of  their  forefathers,  little 
altered  in  customs  or  life  by  contact  with 
white  men,  and  thousands  of  them  unable  to 
speak  Spanish.  They  differ  markedly  in  type, 
one  tribe  from  another,  there  being  one  pop- 
ularly called  Chinos  by  the  Mexicans  because 
of  their  Mongolian  appearance. 

222 


THE    WEST    AND    NORTH 

The  map  and  the  guide-book — for  we  must 
resume  our  journey — will  tell  us  that  even 
more  than  our  own  country,  Mexico  has  been 
slow  to  develop  along  its  western  slope.  Aca- 
pulco,  some  three  hundred  miles  north  of 
Salina  Cruz,  has  a  harbor  generally  conceded 
to  be  the  best  natural  port  in  America,  and 
one  of  the  finest  in  the  world,  offering  without 
man's  effort  advantages  for  which  substitutes 
have  been  so  costly  at  Vera  Cruz  and  Tam- 
pico.  Acapulco  is  completely  land-locked, 
with  high  protecting  hills,  and  amid  charac- 
teristic tropical  scenery.  Some  dredging  is 
needed  to  make  it  of  use  for  the  largest  steam- 
ers. Here  the  galleons  of  the  old  Spanish  trad- 
ers used  to  put  in,  and  the  buccaneers  that 
pursued  them.  Fortifications  were  built  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years  this  was  the  entry  port  for  all 
the  traffic  of  Spain,  not  only  with  her  Philip- 
pine possessions,  but  also  with  India.  Cargoes 
were  unloaded,  packed  across  the  isthmus 
about  four  hundred  miles  to  Vera  Cruz,  and 
reshipped.  But  of  late  a  port  without  a  rail- 
road could  not  flourish,  so  Acapulco  has  not 
greatly  prospered.  The  Cuernavaca  division 
of  the  Mexican  Railway  is  being  extended, 

223 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

and  when  it  reaches  the  coast  Acapulco  will 
assume  importance.  Manzanillo,  already  hav- 
ing railway  connections  over  the  "Central"  by 
way  of  Guadalajara,  but  lacking  complete 
harbor  protection  as  yet,  is  another  port  des- 
tined to  grow.  San  Bias,  yet  a  little  to  the 
north,  then  Mazatlan,  and  last,  halfway  up 
the  east  side  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  Guay- 
mas,  make  a  succession  of  harbors  most  of 
which  are  too  shallow  for  large  vessels,  but  all 
such  as  can  be  deepened,  all  well  protected, 
or  capable  of  being  made  so,  all  extremely 
beautiful.  Absence  of  railroad  facilities, 
which  are  just  now  being  provided,  has  left 
undisturbed  in  these  towns  a  great  deal  that 
is  quaint,  while  being  on  the  coast,  they  have 
slowly  gathered  strange  accretions  of  life 
from  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  You  may 
sit  in  the  plaza  and  study  them.  There  are 
more  various  breeds  of  people  than  in  the  in- 
terior and  more  variously  mixed.  Over  there 
is  a  Chinaman  with  the  bundle  of  linen  that 
seems  the  attribute  of  a  Chinaman  the  world 
over;  and  those  girls  just  beyond  moving 
along  with  a  gait  that  is  half  glide  and  half 
waddle  might  be  his  daughters.  They  are 
more  probably  the  daughters  of  some  Chinese 


THE    WEST    AND    NORTH 

shopkeeper  who  plainly  has  a  Mexican  (In- 
dian) wife.  Of  complexion  they  have  rather 
more  than  either  of  their  parents  are  likely  to 
have  had — a  decided  pink  with  a  waxy  cream 
color.  You  do  not  know  after  looking  twice 
whether  to  call  them  pretty  or  repellent;  hut 
they  look  clean,  healthy,  and  satisfied  with 
life. 

The  negroes  that  pass  now  and  then  do  not 
differ  much  in  appearance  from  those  to  be 
seen  in  the  Carolinas,  though  most  of  them,  if 
you  listen,  are  talking  Spanish. 

This  mother  with  three  children  is  a  mon- 
grel-looking female — one  may  say  it  with 
slight  shame  and  not  unkindly  since  no  other 
phrase  describes  a  jaded  creature  in  whom  the 
Aztec,  the  African,  and  the  Iberian  are  all 
mingled,  and  if  not  badly  mingled  have  still 
not  fortified  her  to  make  more  than  sad,  per- 
severing battle  with  life  and  frequent  mater- 
nity. But  do  you  notice  how  immaculate  are 
the  starched  clothes  of  the  three  children  and 
how  almost  pathetically  clean  her  own  cheap 
garments?  Have  you  any  notion  how  much 
work  is  involved  to  make  the  integuments  of 
four  as  clean  as  that?  Your  laundry  bills 
may  at  times  have  given  you  a  hint  that  did 

225 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

not  belittle  it.  And  this  woman  has  either 
devoted  such  an  amount  of  work  for  to-day's 
outing  or  paid  some  one  yet  poorer  to  do  it. 
Smile  if  you  will  as  she  sends  one  of  her  prog- 
eny back  to  the  dulce  man  with  a  goody  that 
he  has  already  begun  to  enjoy,  but  which  she 
fears  is  not  wholesome,  and  the  dulce  man, 
with  the  universal  complacency  of  the  land, 
submits  to  an  exchange.  So  you  might  smile 
if  you  could  witness  the  housekeeping  of  this 
mother  of  a  family.  More  scrubbing  will  be 
done  in  a  week  than  we  might  think  necessary 
for  a  month;  but  the  tolerance  of  all  kinds  of 
filth  within  arm's  length  of  the  door,  unless 
some  public  authority  looks  after  it,  is  a  thing 
to  admire.  She  is  cleanly,  but  she  does  not 
know  what  sanitation  means.  She  has  a  crav- 
ing for  beauty,  as  the  personal  bedeckments 
of  the  family  attest;  but  she  has  neither  cul- 
tured tastes  nor  the  unspoiled  instinct  for 
simplicity  of  some  of  her  ancestors.  She  has 
a  spark  of  aspiration  after  various  things  if 
only  her  aspiration  were  well  directed  and  she 
were  not  so  fragile  a  piece  of  yellow  clay. 

That  peon  on  the  other  side  of  the  walk  is 
borracho,  which  being  interpreted  means 
drunk — very  drunk.  The  well  meaning 

226 


THE    WEST   AND    NORTH 

young  fellow  of  his  own  class  who  shakes  him 
and  is  greeted  with  a  muddled  but  emphatic 
protest,  wishes  to  save  him  if  possible  from 
being  helped  away  by  a  policeman.  "You 
don't  want  a  trip  to  the  Valle  National,  do 
you?"  he  inquires  in  answer  to  the  protest; 
and  the  name  has  a  sobering  effect.  Unless 
you  have  been  reading  books  you  will  not 
know  what  the  Valle  National  is;  but  the 
borracho  has  an  idea.  The  name  is  burned  in 
on  his  mind  so  that  even  an  excess  of  pulque 
or  other  drink  does  not  wholly  obliterate  it. 
It  is  the  place,  so  he  believes,  where  a  fellow 
arrested  for  being  disorderly  may  find  him- 
self consigned  to  help  raise  some  of  the  best 
tobacco  in  the  world,  under  such  climate  and 
conditions  that  he  will  not  last  for  more  than 
one  crop.  The  poor  people  have  their  bug- 
aboos, many  of  which  are  unsubstantial,  and 
Valle  National  is  one  of  them.  The  army  is 
another,  and  the  army  has  shown  itself  de- 
cidedly unsubstantial  on  occasions.  Why  not, 
if  composed  of  men  to  whom  it  was  a  bug- 
aboo until  it  became  an  unwelcome  reality? 

This  woman  with  the  powder  so  thick  on  her 
face  and  the  ludicrous  grandee  air  is  the  wife 
of  some  small  merchant  of  European  or 

227 


mixed  blood,  and  the  young  Indian  girl,  so 
much  superior  to  her  in  physique,  in  comeli- 
ness, and  in  apparent  interest  in  life,  is  her 
servant. 

On  paper,  that  is  in  books  planned  so  as 
not  to  need  revision  for  two  or  three  years, 
railroad  connection  is  complete  from  Guana- 
juato all  the  way  up  the  coast  through  the 
ports  and  beyond  to  Nogales,  Arizona.  In 
fact  there  are  gaps  as  yet  in  the  southern  part. 
For  the  immediate  present  the  tourist  will 
choose  a  route  farther  eastward.  There  are 
three  principal  routes  from  the  capital  to  the 
United  States:  one  by  Zacatecas,  Torreon, 
and  Chihuahua  to  El  Paso,  Texas;  one  turn- 
ing a  little  eastward  at  Torreon  to  Eagle 
Pass,  Texas;  and  one  still  farther  to  the  east 
by  way  of  Monterey,  entering  the  United 
States  at  Laredo,  Texas.  Each  of  the  Amer- 
ican border  cities  has  its  neighboring  Mexican 
town  just  over  the  line:  for  Nogales,  Arizona, 
Nogales  in  Sonora;  for  El  Paso,  Texas, 
Juarez  in  Chihuahua;  for  Eagle  Pass,  Texas, 
Ciudad  Porfirio  Diaz  in  Coahuila;  for  La- 
redo, Texas,  Nuevo  Laredo  in  Tamaulipas. 

Mention  ought  to  be  made  of  Durango,  a 
fine  city  of  40,000  inhabitants,  which  is 

228 


THE    WEST    AND    NORTH 

reached  by  a  side  trip  of  six  to  seven  hours 
southwestward  from  Torreon,  which  with  an 
altitude  of  six  thousand  feet  has  a  delightful 
climate,  and  about  which  is  an  interesting 
region  but  little  developed.  The  country  is 
mountainous  and  full  of  mineral  deposits. 
Fish  and  game  abound. 

Zacatecas,  hidden  in  a  ravine  between  sil- 
ver-bearing mountains,  has  a  population  of 
thirty-five  thousand  and  is  noted  for  mining, 
for  churches,  and  for  nearness  to  some  inter- 
esting ruins,  La  Quemada.  The  climate  is  not 
one  of  the  attractions  though  the  scenery  has 
a  barren  beauty.  A  trip  to  a  mine  is  some- 
times made  part  of  a  visit  here.  My  own  ac- 
quaintance with  silver  mines  happens  to  have 
been  made  at  another  famous  camp,  but  essen- 
tials would  not  differ.  A  tram  car  drawn  by 
mules  is  the  most  likely  conveyance  from 
town.  Stone  or  plastered  and  whitewashed 
monuments  on  the  hillside  indicate  the  bound- 
aries of  the  "claim."  When  the  actual  build- 
ings are  reached,  the  departments  working 
above  ground  are  too  numerous  to  mention — 
offices,  assaying  rooms,  sorting,  grinding, 
washing,  packing  rooms,  blacksmithing  and 
repair  shops,  smelters,  etc.  Many  cripples 

229 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  the  industry  find  employment  in  these  su- 
perterranean  departments.  The  man  who 
drives  nails  in  that  "skip"  is  blind  of  one  eye, 
the  man  who  turns  the  wheel  over  there  at  the 
bellows  is  totally  blind,  and  yonder  you  may 
notice  a  poor  fellow  standing  on  a  wooden 
prop  which  serves  as  a  leg.  These  are  natives. 
But  here  comes  a  young  Englishman  from 
the  chief  office  who  lost  his  arm  only  six 
months  ago  through  some  mishandling  or  im- 
perfection of  a  machine.  You  have  bespoken 
a  pleasure  about  as  grim  as  visiting  the  forge 
of  Hephsestus.  Along  with  the  blind  and  the 
cripples,  you  look  every  moment  for  dwarfs 
and  giants.  Now  enter  through  the  long  tun- 
nel where  you  see  the  little  flat  cars  issuing 
drawn  by  mules,  and  keep  close  to  your  guide. 
The  walls  of  the  tunnel  are  part  masonry, 
part  natural  rock.  When  you  reach  the  far 
end  of  this  nearly  horizontal  tunnel,  you  are 
already  far  under  a  hill.  The  elevator  or 
"cage"  will  take  you  up  the  shaft  to  the  sur- 
face, or  down  to  lower  and  lower  levels.  No- 
tice the  great  pumping  engine  lifting  thou- 
sands of  gallons  of  gray  mine  water  per  min- 
ute, night  and  day,  and  always  under  careful 
watch,  to  keep  the  whole  enterprise  from  be- 


ing  submerged.  In  some  places  you  would 
still  find  only  bull  hides,  roughly  sewed  and 
used  as  buckets,  strings  of  them  being  hauled 
to  the  surface;  but  you  are  visiting  a  some- 
what modernized  establishment.  There  are 
sixteen  different  levels,  one  below  the  other, 
to  which  you  may  plunge  in  this  cage  of  yours, 
till  your  technical  friend  tells  you  you  are 
only  a  petty  two  or  three  thousand  feet  above 
sea  level  and  your  sensations  tell  you  that 
hell  cannot  be  far  below.  Along  every  level 
run  narrow  shafts,  broadened  wherever  rich 
ore  has  appeared  in  quantity.  Along  every 
shaft  crouch  men  and  little  children,  half 
naked,  under  their  dripping  loads.  Over  each 
group  of  Indian  laborers  is  a  Mexican,  an 
English,  or  quite  possibly  an  American  boss, 
his  lamp,  a  candle,  stuck  upon  his  hat  with 
soft  clay.  He  himself  does  no  work  except 
in  emergency — no  white  man  in  Mexico  above 
or  below  ground  does  manual  work — but  even 
so  his  position  does  not  provoke  envy.  Heat, 
blackness  of  thick  darkness,  strange  half- 
muffled,  reverberant  sounds,  a  sense  of  pres- 
sure in  the  ears  and  of  deadly  weight  upon  the 
lungs,  a  saturating  drip,  drip  at  every  turn, 
and  confused  glimpses  now  and  then  of 

231 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

human  figures  at  toil — this  is  about  all  that 
the  casual  visitor  to  a  mine  can  record.  Above 
ground  again  you  may  watch  to  see  how  the 
workers  emerge  and  will  observe  them  riding 
upon  an  open  "skip" — not  a  "cage"  this  time 
— some  standing  upon  the  low  edge  and  reach- 
ing over  to  cling  to  the  rope  by  which  the  car 
is  hoisted.  Deaths,  you  are  told,  are  only 
moderately  numerous,  the  greatest  numbers 
being  on  Mondays  or  following  feast  days 
when  pulque  has  been  imbibed.  The  Mexi- 
can laborer  is  not  lazy  on  a  work  day,  but  if 
free  to  do  so  he  will  observe  all  the  festivals 
and  memorials,  for  he  is  a  creature  of  custom. 
The  mules  that  you  see  mixing  the  great  t orta 
(cake)  of  amalgam  out  there  are  not  crea- 
tures of  custom  and  do  not  observe  holidays 
nor  die  with  incontinent  suddenness ;  but  they 
have  shockingly  sore  legs  from  the  effect  of 
vitriol  in  the  mixture.  They  are  relieved, 
when  too  much  affected,  and  used  by  way  of 
change  to  turn  the  great  rolling  stone  that 
grinds  the  ore.  You  may  console  yourself 
that  modern  stamp  mills  are  displacing  this 
invention  of  1557  as  well  as  some  of  the  uses 
of  human  labor  just  shown  you.  And  yet 
there  are  to  this  day  also  mines  where  peons 


THE    WEST    AND    NORTH 

toil  to  the  surface  upon  notched  tree  trunks 
for  ladders,  denied  even  the  perilous  aid  of 
the  "skip."  By  means  thus  widely  varying, 
Mexico  leads  the  world  as  a  source  of  silver, 
with  forty  million  dollars'  worth  annually, 
stands  well  up  in  the  list  of  gold-producing 
countries,  with  twenty-four  million  dollars' 
worth,  is  second  to  the  United  States  in  cop- 
per production,  with  an  annual  yield  of  thir- 
teen million  dollars'  worth,  and  is  third  for 
output  of  lead,  though  for  this  the  figure 
seems  small — three  and  one-half  million  dol- 
lars' worth.  Silver,  gold,  copper,  and  lead 
are  very  commonly  found  two  or  three  to- 
gether, a  mine  being  operated  for  the  pre- 
dominant metal,  while  assays  are  made  for  the 
others  as  by-products.  The  subject  of  min- 
ing would  repay  further  discussion  if  we  were 
either  investigators  or  formal  students. 

Torreon,  with  a  population  of  fourteen 
thousand,  has  its  chief  distinction  in  being  a 
railway  junction  as  already  indicated.  An 
accident  to  our  train  made  me  acquainted 
with  it,  and  I  found  it  a  good  deal  American- 
ized. Chihuahua  is  even  more  so,  being  nearer 
the  border,  and  is  twice  as  large.  Silver 
smelters — for  still  we  are  in  the  region  of 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

rich  silver  mines — iron  foundries,  and  fac- 
tories give  it  a  modern  air.  Hidalgo,  the 
"Author  of  Mexican  Liberty,"  was  put  to 
death  here  in  1811.  Though  the  city  of  Chi- 
huahua is  chiefly  famous  for  the  raising  of  a 
useless  and  sickly  kind  of  dog,  it  is  the  capital 
of  a  state  larger  than  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania 
combined.  This  area  is  sparsely  populated  by 
Tarahumare  Indians,  the  best  runners  in  the 
world,  and  by  miners  and  ranchmen,  many  of 
whom  are  Americans.  It  is  the  old  sister 
state  of  Texas,  and  like  it  in  having  vast 
regions  devoted  to  cattle  raising.  Lumber- 
ing and  silver  mining  are  also  among  the  in- 
dustries. 


XIX 

TIDES    THAT   MEET 

A  WRITER  in  a  religious  weekly  not 
long  ago  spoke  of  the  twentieth 
century  as  being  on  one  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  the  sixteenth  on  the  other. 
No  one  would  expect  this  altogether  to  be 
the  case,  and  yet  one  is  constantly  surprised 
to  find  how  far  it  is  from  being  so.  Monterey 
is  about  as  American  a  city  as  San  Antonio, 
and  San  Antonio  lacks  little  of  being  as  Mex- 
ican as  Monterey.  The  baggage  man,  the 
customs  agent,  and  lately,  by  reason  of  a  de- 
cree, the  train  conductor  also  are  of  quite  dif- 
ferent types  on  the  two  sides  of  the  line;  and 
from  these  one  might  easily  generalize.  But 
an  article  by  Charles  Moreau  Harger  in  the 
Outlook  for  January  25,  1911,  apropos  of  the 
admission  to  statehood  of  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico,  reveals  that  on  the  American  side 
from  Brownsville,  Texas,  to  San  Diego,  Cali- 
fornia, the  "twentieth  century"  is  only 

235 


TIDES    THAT    MEET 

blended  with  the  sixteenth.  From  the  Gulf 
to  the  Pacific,  the  quiet,  non-official  popula- 
tion who  have  nothing  to  do  with  large  affairs 
but  are  so  important  in  any  prophecy  regard- 
ing the  future  character  of  a  region,  has  a 
considerable  residue  of  the  Mexican  to  whom 
the  whole  southwest  once  belonged.  He  is 
the  "native,"  here  as  in  Mexico  itself.  Forty- 
one  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  New  Mex- 
ico are  Spanish  American;  there  are  135,000 
of  them  in  this  one  state.  How  many  more 
are  of  mixed  blood  would  be  hard  to  guess, 
but  the  number  is  certainly  large. 

The  Mexican,  as  a  rule,  is  without  strong 
national  or  racial  antipathies.  Says  a  friend 
of  mine  who  has  studied  the  subject  for  years: 
"They  are  the  amalgamators  of  all  races. 
Large  numbers  of  the  poorer  Mexicans  are 
coming  to  the  United  States  now  and  by  in- 
termarriage will  do  much  to  solve  the  negro 
problem  and  the  Indian  problem.  What  the 
final  race  will  be  I  cannot  predict,  but  my  ob- 
servation makes  me  think  it  will  be  good. 
There  are  at  present  about  as  many  Mexicans 
as  there  are  American  negroes  in  this  south- 
ern strip;  and  the  amalgamation  can  be  seen 
all  along  the  border,  especially  in  San  An- 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

lonio,  Texas.  There  is  a  city  by  itself  in  San 
Antonio  where  all  the  breeds  may  be  studied 
by  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble."  As 
well  as  the  poor,  some  Mexican  families  of 
means  and  culture  have  always  remained  in 
the  United  States  since  the  border  was  shifted 
southward  to  include  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  aggressive  Amer- 
ican is  in  evidence  on  the  southern  as  well  as 
the  northern  side  of  the  border,  occupying 
the  positions  in  which  initiative  and  the  ability 
to  manage  would  naturally  place  him.  Nor  is 
he  the  only  modifying  influence.  "From  all 
these  colonies  in  the  United  States  Mexicans 
and  mixed  bloods  who  have  got  a  little  Amer- 
ican education  are  constantly  going  back  to 
Mexico  along  with  the  Americans  who  go 
looking  for  land.  The  flow  southward  will 
increase  now  that  the  free  land  in  the  United 
States  is  nearly  all  taken.  The  Roosevelt 
Dam  and  other  projects,  and  the  statehood  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  will  hasten  the 
movement.  The  national  line  has  little  effect 
to  stop  it." 

In  Torreon,  you  will  remember  my  saying, 
I  experienced  one  of  the  delays  that  still  oc- 
cur from  time  to  time  on  Mexican  railroads, 

237 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

or  on  our  own,  for  that  matter.  I  entered  a 
barber  shop  and  asked  to  be  shaved,  putting 
the  request  as  well  as  I  could  in  Spanish. 
"Beg  pardon,  sir!  What  did  you  say?"  was 
the  rather  sharp  response.  "Oh,  then  you 
speak  English?"  said  I.  "Yes,"  answered 
the  man,  "and  it's  lucky,  for  I  don't  speak 
anything  else." 

This  man  was  an  American,  plying  his 
trade  over  two  hundred  miles  from  our  bor- 
der, yet  without  knowledge  of  any  tongue  but 
our  own;  and  the  incident  occurred  ten  years 
ago. 

There  was  a  young  Texan  in  our  party 
who  was  on  his  way  homeward  to  repair  ill 
health,  and  who  could  not  eat  buffet  rations. 
I  had  tried  repeatedly  to  get  him  some  Amer- 
ican crackers  or  English  biscuits — quite  sim- 
ilar articles  under  a  different  name, — but  the 
Mexican  shops  that  I  entered  could  not 
supply  either.  I  asked  my  barber  friend  if 
he  could  help  me  to  what  was  wanted.  "There 
is  an  American  grocer  three  or  four  doors  be- 
low," he  replied.  In  this  grocery,  also,  Eng- 
lish was  of  course  the  language  of  trade, 
though  Spanish  may  have  been  used  on  occa- 
sion. I  found  that  one  could  do  better  with 

238 


TIDES    THAT    MEET 

good  English  than  with  lame  Castilian  in  the 
town  generally, 

In  the  "Pullman,"  which  was  to  go  as  far 
as  Mexico  City,  the  capital  and  very  heart  of 
the  republic,  I  heard  a  party  of  Mexicans  try- 
ing to  make  their  wants  understood.  "Oh,  I 
don't  comprende  what  you  quiere! "  (don't 
know  what  you  want!)  was  the  exclamation 
of  the  negro  porter.  The  number  of  Amer- 
icans traveling  by  Mexican  railroads  is  pro- 
portionately larger  than  would  be  supposed, 
if  third-class  passengers  be  left  out  of  reckon- 
ing. Particularly  is  this  true  in  sleeping-cars. 
So  our  porter  had  a  not  unaccountable  feel- 
ing that  English  was  the  language  of  his 
realm,  and  that  aliens  ought  to  learn  English 
before  coming  in.  The  steward  in  the  same 
train  called  upon  some  passenger  to  interpret, 
when  he  wished  to  buy  watermelons  of  a 
native. 

All  Pullman  conductors  in  Mexico,  so  far 
as  I  have  ever  observed,  speak  English.  Most 
of  them  are  Americans,  by  birth  or  adoption. 
It  is  true  that  they  all  speak  Spanish.  There 
has  lately  been  made  a  law  that  porters  also 
must  know  Spanish;  but  the  need  of  such  a 
law  explains  itself.  Fancy  a  law  requiring 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

similar  officials  in  the  United  States  to  know 
English! 

It  is  not  surprising  that  English  should 
make  some  way  southward  over  the  boundary. 
So  does  Spanish  penetrate  northward,  for  the 
matter  of  that.  But  the  exchange  is  not  equal 
in  amount,  as  the  Mexicans  emigrate  less  and 
travel  less  than  we.  There  are  several  thou- 
sand resident  Americans  in  Mexico  City 
alone,  to  say  nothing  about  the  multitude  of 
tourists.  If  the  linguistic  movement  south- 
ward continues  to  be  more  than  the  counter 
movement,  plainly  the  line  of  contact  will  it- 
self gradually  be  moved.  There  is  hardly  a 
Mexican  urchin  selling  fruit  or  papers  along 
the  railroads  within  fifty  miles  of  the  Rio 
Grande  who  does  not  know  at  least  some 
colloquial  phrases  of  English.  This  becomes 
less  and  less  true,  indeed,  as  one  progresses 
southward.  But  one  is  never  surprised  to  be 
asked  by  some  russet  -  faced  tatterdemalion, 
"You  want  the  paper?"  "You  want  some 
fruit?"  and — this  is  a  parenthesis — English 
reappears  more  prominently  than  ever  at  the 
capital.  Ask  a  Mexico  City  policeman  in 
very  simple  English  where  some  important 
building  is,  and  quite  probably  he  will  tell 

240 


TIDES    THAT    MEET 

you.  Walk  into  any  large  shop  and  ask  for 
what  you  want,  and  if  the  clerk  does  not 
understand  "United  States"  he  will  call  some 
one  who  does. 

Let  me  suggest  a  few  reasons  for  the 
spread  of  English  among  our  neighbors  on 
the  south.  The  first  shall  be  a  negative  rea- 
son. Hating  Spain  as  they  do,  and  with  more 
cause,  historically  speaking,  than  ever  es- 
tranged us  from  our  British  cousins,  Mexi- 
cans have  no  great  tenacity  for  the  Spanish 
language.  I  am  not  wholly  accounting  for 
the  fact;  but  at  least  it  is  a  fact.  Before  I 
have  ended,  this  will  have  become  more  ap- 
parent. 

A  second  reason  for  the  tendency  men- 
tioned is  the  dearth  of  modern  writing  in 
Spanish  upon  scientific  and  technical  subjects. 
If  a  young  man  expects  to  go  far  in  the  study 
of  architecture  or  engineering,  he  must  read 
English,  because  enough  books  in  Spanish 
do  not  exist,  original  or  translated.  French 
works  are  all  that  could  be  desired  for  aesthetic 
treatment,  but  not  as  touching  practical  ques- 
tions of  construction.  German  is  learned  only 
with  difficulty,  being  more  purely  Teutonic. 
If  the  student  turns  his  attention  to  medicine, 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

he  must  do  his  reading  in  either  French  or 
English.  French  has  been  preferred,  but 
English  is  displacing  it.  The  same  is  true  of 
any  theology  save  that  of  the  Roman  church. 
The  most  important  school  of  Protestant  the- 
ology in  the  republic  prescribes  its  reading 
courses  in  English  throughout,  most  of  the 
teachers  being  Americans. 

The  inadequacy  of  Spanish  was  smartly 
alluded  to  once  by  a  young  Englishman  of 
my  acquaintance.  At  a  dinner  party  where 
no  other  foreigner  was  present,  he  sat  next  a 
young  woman  who  lacked  the  usual  courtesy  of 
her  nation  and  who  was  disposed  to  humiliate 
him.  Having  noticed  his  difficulty  in  Span- 
ish, she  made  him  confess  that  he  knew  but 
little  French  or  German.  "Then,  sir,  pray 
what  do  you  speak?"  asked  she.  "Sefiorita, 
thanks  be  to  Heaven,  I  speak  English  very 
well,"  came  the  retort.  "One  who  can  do 
that  need  not  learn  all  the  other  languages. 
English  will  take  me  wherever  I  wish  to  go, 
and  whatever  I  wish  to  read  I  can  read  in 
English."  Blunt  as  was  the  answer,  their 
Mexican  host  applauded  it. 

The  commercial  aggressiveness  of  Amer- 
icans and  English  is  recognized  as  one  cause 


TIDES    THAT    MEET 

of  the  great  strides  made  by  our  language  the 
world  over,  and  not  less  in  Mexico  than  else- 
where. Already  English  is,  more  than  Span- 
ish, the  medium  of  large  business  transactions 
in  the  capital.  This  is  more  easily  understood 
the  more  one  looks  at  statistics.  According 
to  estimates  something  like  a  billion  of  Amer- 
ican dollars  is  invested  in  Mexico. 

Our  linguistic  stupidity  and  obstinacy  may 
be  regarded  as  a  cause  of  our  linguistic  tri- 
umphs. In  Mexico,  Germans  are  considered 
the  best  foreigners  because  of  their  quickness 
to  acquire  both  speech  and  customs,  while 
English  and  Americans  are  universally  known 
as  the  worst.  Any  of  us  who  is  even  a  little 
instructed  has  frequent  occasion  to  blush  for 
the  ignorance  and  regardlessness  of  his  coun- 
trymen. Hence  it  follows,  though  the  argu- 
ment brings  us  doubtful  credit,  that  those  who 
will  treat  with  us  must  learn  our  ways  and  our 
speech.  Most  Frenchmen  and  practically  all 
Germans  in  Mexico  speak  English  as  well  as 
Spanish. 

Mexicans  know  the  significance  of  these 
facts,  and  every  intelligent  Mexican  who  does 
not  speak  English  is  anxious  to  learn.  I 
knew  well  a  teacher  of  scores  of  them,  some 

243 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  whom  can  now  use  English  almost  as  a 
native  tongue;  and  many  more  would  have 
become  pupils  if  time  could  have  been  given 
them.  There  w«re  two  other  private  teachers 
of  English  in  the  same  town,  whose  popula- 
tion, excluding  illiterates,  would  not  be  more 
than  ten  thousand;  and  both  teachers  were 
continually  refusing  work.  Besides  this  pri- 
vate instruction  to  adults,  regular  work  in 
English  is  required  of  all  children  in  public 
schools.  From  two  to  five  years  of  English 
is  given  in  all  state  institutions  of  higher 
grade,  and  practically  the  same  is  true  of  pri- 
vate schools. 

On  one  occasion  the  American  teacher  men- 
tioned was  invited  to  call  upon  the  principal 
of  a  large  school  for  boys  and  asked  to  name 
a  price  for  certain  hours  of  English.  The 
principal  made  some  objection  to  his  charge, 
whereupon  the  Mexican  friend  who  intro- 
duced him  declared:  "The  patrons  of  the 
school  pay  more  than  that  for  music,  which  is 
a  mere  ornamental  accomplishment  for  most 
children.  By  and  by,  when  the  Yankees  have 
finished  their  pacific  conquest  of  Mexico,  we 
shall  learn  which  is  more  necessary,  English 


or  music." 


TIDES    THAT    MEET 

The  pacific  conquest  is  going  on,  though  it 
does  not  look  at  all  toward  political  union. 

To  prophesy  that  in  a  few  generations 
English  will  be  the  universal  language  of 
Mexico,  would  be  to  prophesy  overmuch. 
Spanish  has  never  become  a  universal  lan- 
guage there.  Thousands  of  Indians  in  the 
remote  villages  still  retain  the  primitive 
speech  of  their  ancestors.  But  in  a  few  gen- 
erations, possibly  not  more  than  two  or  three, 
English  seems  destined  to  become  the  lan- 
guage of  Mexican  schools  and  the  language 
of  Mexican  society  generally.  We  have  seen 
that  it  has  points  of  superiority  as  among  the 
Mexicans  themselves.  I  have  hinted  at  a 
more  potent  reason  for  such  prophecy;  multi- 
plied and  growing  interrelations  make  it  in- 
creasingly desirable  that  we  and  they  shall 
have  a  common  speech.  And  when  a  com- 
mon speech  is  established,  it  will  be  no  arti- 
ficial Esperanto,  but  a  language  that  shall 
naturally  have  become  the  medium  because 
of  having  proved  itself,  of  the  two  now  used 
between  us,  the  more  vigorous  and  practical 
for  modern  needs.  Barring  a  catastrophe, 
that  language  will  of  course  be  English.  At 
present  it  shows  marvelous  increase. 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

Some  who  have  studied  general  movements 
and  tendencies  in  the  western  world  recog- 
nize that  more  than  Mexico  and  our  border 
states  are  concerned  in  the  interplay  of  which 
we  are  speaking.  Without  any  thought  of 
political  aggression  the  Latin  influence 
presses  outward  from  the  strong  and  growing 
republics  of  South  America,  while  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  influence,  so  called,  just  as  constantly 
bears  down  from  the  north.  Where  the  two 
tides  will  definitely  come  to  a  balance  is  not 
sure — that  will  depend  on  the  outcome  of 
many  material  and  moral  factors;  but  the 
Anglo-Saxon  dominance  appears  not  likely  to 
be  eliminated  north  of  the  Isthmus  of  Pana- 
ma. All  of  North  America  will  some  day, 
we  are  thus  constrained  to  believe,  be  one  in 
language  and  civilization,  one  in  the  funda- 
mentals that  concern  society,  just  as  all  South 
America  promises  to  be  one;  and  just  as  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States  are  already  one, 
geographers  and  politicians  alike  to  the  con- 
trary. It  is  not  government  but  the  broader 
social  facts  that  this  implies. 

We  chose  the  ocean  route  southward  to 
begin  with,  you  will  remember,  partly  be- 
cause the  Rio  Grande  looks  so  much  alike  on 

246 


its  two  banks;  and  we  proposed  not  to  be 
cheated  of  contrasting  the  twentieth  century 
with  the  sixteenth.  You  may  have  it  in  mind 
also  that  for  five  hundred  miles  the  border  is 
not  marked  even  by  this  puny  stream,  which 
barring  times  of  freshet  may  be  forded  at  will. 
We  are  divided  only  by  a  line  on  the  map. 
Why  should  we  not  intermingle  and  take  on 
each  other's  ways  more  or  less,  we  and  our  so 
near  neighbors? 


247 


XX 

CUSTOMS   AND    COMPARISONS 

THERE  is  very  much,  we  discover,  that 
we  would  like  to  have  got  at  first  hand, 
but  must  now  gather  in  these  secondary 
ways.  Familiarity  with  the  bullfight  will  not 
be  one  of  them,  for  whoever  wants  to  see  a 
bullfight  has  opportunity  enough.  I  myself 
am  unacquainted  from  choice.  Those  to 
whdm  the  romantic  traditional  associations  ob- 
scure the  actualities  of  the  thing  and  who  can 
think  back  to  the  old  tournament  jousts 
during  a  performance  may  enjoy  it.  Those 
who  wish  to  read  about  it  are  advised  to  take 
Mr.  Arthur  M.  Huntington's  "Notebook  in 
Northern  Spain,"  Miss  Katharine  Lee  Bates's 
"Spanish  Highways  and  Byways,"  or  any 
one  of  a  number  of  books  in  which  it  figures, 
including  the  Mexican  guide-books.  To  some 
it  is  only  an  exhibition  of  a  poor  old  horse 
being  impaled  or  having  his  entrails  gored  out 
by  a  tortured  animal  that  would  gladly  be  let 


CUSTOMS    AND    COMPARISONS 

alone — sickening  and  revolting.  Many  Amer- 
ican men  who  carry  an  air  of  bravado  on  their 
travels  and  want  to  see  what  is  to  be  seen  are 
unable  to  sit  through  one  killing.  Mexicans 
apologize  for  the  institution  even  while  they 
admit  they  enjoy  it,  and  say  that  it  is  sure  to 
disappear,  though  its  death  is  slow.  The  mor- 
bid curiosity  of  foreigners  helps  to  perpetuate 
it.  I  never  heard  a  Mexican  silly  enough  to 
argue  that  it  is  "less  brutalizing  than  foot- 
ball," though  some  Americans  have  so  argued. 
The  infliction  of  bodily  injury  or  pain  is  no 
object  in  football  unless  to  some  player  un- 
worthy of  the  game — certainly  not  to  the  spec- 
tator— while  in  bullfighting  the  glee  of  the 
whole  matter  is  the  glee  of  killing.  If  the 
bullfighter  himself  suffers,  the  sport  is  all 
the  better  for  that. 

Many  comparisons  of  various  kinds  at  first 
made  to  the  detriment  of  Mexico  are  after- 
ward revised.  With  writers  about  Mexico 
the  "palm  shack"  and  the  "mud  hwt"  are  fav- 
orite objects  of  contempt.  The  bamboo  and 
paper  house  of  the  Japanese  is  appreciated, 
but  the  Mexican  palm  shack,  which  may  be  a 
cousin  to  it,  is  still  treated  with  derision  or 
disgust.  Yet  the  palm  shack  has  its  merits. 

249 


It  affords  excellent  ventilation  where  ventila- 
tion is  desirable;  and  if  it  is  not  always  of 
marked  cleanliness,  neither  are  the  places 
where  men  and  women  starve  among  us  at 
home.  At  its  best  it  may  be  very  inviting. 
The  "mud  hut,"  that  is  the  adobe  house,  is 
certainly  the  kind  I  should  build  in  Mexico 
if  I  could  spend  only  two  or  three  thousand 
dollars  on  a  dwelling.  It  is  fire-proof,  earth- 
quake resisting,  warm  in  winter,  cool  in  sum- 
mer, highly  durable,  and,  when  plastered, 
capable  of  being  colored  and  recolored  to  suit 
the  taste  of  the  occupants,  at  small  expense. 
I  have  mentioned  one  in  Oaxaca  that  is  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  old  and  still  good. 

Whoever  speaks  of  Mexico  as  a  benighted 
country  does  not  refer  to  the  method  of  light- 
ing her  towns.  A  direct  change  from  the 
candle  lantern  to  the  electric  arc  took  place 
there  while  only  the  most  progressive  Amer- 
ican towns  had  as  yet  adopted  electric  light- 
ing. As  Mexico  had  no  natural  gas,  no  known 
supply  of  native  coal  from  which  to  make  gas, 
and  no  oil  except  what  was  imported,  there  was 
every  stimulus  to  develop  her  many  slender 
but  high  waterfalls  from  which  abundant  elec- 
tric current  could  be  generated,  Part  of  the 

250 


CUSTOMS    AND    COMPARISONS 

lacks  named  above  have  since  been  filled; 
though  domestic  coal  is  still  not  abundant,  and 
so  iron,  of  which  there  are  considerable  de- 
posits, especially  in  Durango,  is  smelted  at  a 
disadvantage  and  in  limited  quantities.  Mon- 
terey has  the  largest  and  most  modern  plant, 
where  even  heavy  Bessemer  steel  rails  are 
made. 

The  Mexicans  as  a  people  are  artistic  in 
temperament  and  intellectual  when  given  a 
chance.  In  an  imitative  way  they  are  clever 
at  all  sorts  of  handicrafts.  They  have  less 
mechanical  ability  than  Americans,  less  busi- 
ness invention  or  initiative,  and  less  general 
practicality.  The  representative  Mexican 
physician,  I  believe,  knows  as  much  of  the 
theory  of  his  profession  as  the  American 
physician,  and  has  done  more  reading  aside 
from  his  profession;  but  for  applying  his 
knowledge  to  cases  commend  me  to  the  Amer- 
ican. I  have  known  of  some  unfortunate  ex- 
periences with  Mexican  doctors,  and  particu- 
larly surgeons,  for  whom  as  men  of  culture 
and  of  intellect  I  had  great  respect.  The 
same  characteristics  appear  in  the  trades.  A 
Mexican  carpenter  can  do  nothing  for  you 
which  requires  ingenuity ;  but  if  he  makes  you 

251 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

a  plain  chest  he  will  insist  on  making  it  better 
than  the  American  carpenter  would  think 
worth  while. 

Mexicans  on  their  part  are  as  likely  to 
think  us  better  than  we  are  as  to  think  us 
worse.  A  native  preacher  of  really  admirable 
attainments  after  spending  a  winter  in  New 
York  gave  an  account  of  his  impressions.  It 
was  extremely  interesting  but  also  amusing  to 
some  American  hearers  because  of  the  way  in 
which  he  lauded  us  for  merits  that  we  do  not 
possess.  The  extreme  courtesy  of  everybody 
in  New  York  was  one  subject  of  comment 
with  him.  New  York  policemen,  he  observed, 
are  not  armed,  except  with  a  stick,  and  have 
no  need  to  be. 

That  there  are  some  speakers  and  writers 
who  regard  Americans  as  mere  exploiters  of 
their  country  cannot  be  denied,  and  while  un- 
balanced, their  view  has  an  element  of  truth. 
Americans  own  some  of  the  henequin  planta- 
tions of  Yucatan,  control  mines  where  labor 
is  as  much  oppressed  and  safety  of  life  as 
little  regarded  as  ever  under  Spanish  manage- 
ment, and  hold  large  areas  of  unimproved 
land  which  an  iniquitous  system  long  made 
exempt  from  taxation.  American  policy  of 


CUSTOMS    AND    COMPARISONS 

finance  compelled  a  constant  apology  or  de- 
fense of  the  Diaz  administration  when  it  was 
indefensible,  and  so  made  us  enemies  of  prog- 
ress among  our  southern  neighbors.  It  is  de- 
clared, let  us  hope  falsely,  that  the  counter- 
revolution and  attempt  to  overturn  Madero's 
progressive  government  was  partly  financed 
from  Wall  Street. 

There  are,  of  course,  no  end  of  customs  and 
objects  in  Mexico  which  do  not  lend  them- 
selves to  any  comparison  at  all  but  which  one 
remembers  and  would  like  to  describe.  One 
is  the  celebration  of  Christmas.  The  puestos 
or  special  Christmas  markets  are  interesting, 
but  I  have  reference  more  to  the  Posada, 
which  translated  means  "the  inn."  A  shrine 
is  set  up,  and  the  manger,  the  divine  babe, 
Mary,  and  Joseph  are  represented  as  well  as 
other  figures  or  incidents  pertaining  to  the 
life  of  Christ.  Some  of  the  company  remain 
inside  while  others .  forming  a  procession  out- 
side sing  or  chant  their  supplication  for  ad- 
mittance. This  is  denied,  also  in  song,  nine 
times,  symbolizing  the  failure  of  Mary  and 
Joseph  to  find  lodging,  but  on  the  tenth  time 
it  is  granted,  after  which  the  remainder  of 
the  solemnity  is  held  before  the  shrine.  A 

253 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

less  serious  part  of  the  ceremony  comes  with 
the  giving  of  gifts,  which  are  likely  to  be 
figures  in  the  forms  of  dancers,  clowns,  or 
animals,  rilled  with  candy  or  other  dainties. 
Larger  figures  of  earthenware  are  hung  from 
the  ceiling,  and  blindfolded  members  of  the 
party  hit  at  them  with  sticks,  the  aim  being  to 
make  sudden  distribution  of  the  contents. 

Another  curious  custom  belongs  to  the 
Easter  season.  On  Saturday  of  the  semana 
santa  (Easter  week),  at  an  appointed  hour, 
Judas  the  betrayer  is  burned  with  great 
demonstration.  I  saw  him  suffer,  representa- 
tively, in  front  of  several  pulque  shops  on  the 
day  which  I  recall.  Announcement  before- 
hand will  have  gathered  a  considerable  crowd 
at  each  place.  From  the  roof  or  upper  win- 
dow of  the  shop,  a  rope  is  made  fast  to  some 
opposite  building.  In  proper  time  the  man 
who  is  to  manage  the  affair  shows  himself 
and  slackens  the  rope  so  that  it  is  within 
reach  from  the  ground.  Then  Judas  is  borne 
out  and  greeted  by  shouts  and  the  waving  of 
many  small  paper  banners  which  have  been 
distributed  by  some  merchant,  perhaps  the 
keeper  of  the  shop,  and  which  bears  an  ad- 
vertisement of  his  wares. 

254. 


CUSTOMS    AND    COMPARISONS 

Judas  makes  plain  at  once  that  some  humor 
is  admitted  to  the  occasion.  He  is  sure  to 
have  grotesque  features,  usually  with  a  large 
and  well-colored  nose,  like  those  of  our  comic 
valentines.  Not  infrequently  he  has  a  high 
hat  and  always  a  coat  that  is  "to  laugh  at." 
He  may  have  been  given  an  old  basket,  or  a 
great  empty  gourd,  or  some  cast-off  garment 
to  sling  across  his  arm  to  make  him  more 
ludicrous.  If  his  ordeal  is  to  be  before  a  shoe 
shop  instead  of  a  "drinkery,"  then  he  will 
probably  have  a  pair  of  shoes  or  a  hat  which 
will  be  coveted  by  the  people  below.  So  far 
as  I  have  observed,  Judas  always  keeps  a 
cheerful  air  through  the  whole  ceremony,  until 
the  fatal  end,  when  of  course  he  can  no  longer 
preserve  any  air  at  all. 

Hurriedly  taken  to  the  middle  of  the  street, 
the  curious  figure  is  hung  upon  a  rope,  a  fuse 
in  the  region  of  his  coat-tail  is  lighted,  and  the 
rope  drawn  tight  again.  Judas  begins  to  re- 
volve merrily,  much  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
crowd.  Then  some  explosive  in  his  inward 
parts  takes  action,  and  all  that  is  external, 
being  of  paper,  is  either  blown  to  tatters  or 
quickly  consumed. 

Once  again  the  rope  is  lowered  and  scores 
255 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

of  loud-hooting  boys  charge  at  the  flimsy 
skeleton  of  Judas,  which  still  remains 
dangling.  Perhaps,  for  mischief,  it  is  jerked 
out  of  reach  again  once  or  twice.  But  it  is 
soon  caught,  and  every  boy  of  the  howling 
company  makes  wild  efforts  to  get  at  least 
some  splinter  as  a  trophy.  Doubly  trium- 
phant is  he  who  clutches  the  one  thing  of 
value  that  poor  Judas  possessed,  whether  that 
may  have  been  shoes,  hat,  or  some  other  piece 
of  apparel.  In  an  instant  all  is  over,  and  the 
crowd  begins  to  disperse,  every  one  with  a 
satisfied  look. 

This  performance  was  doubtless  attended, 
generations  ago,  with  religious  fanaticism. 
Now  there  is  nothing  of  the  sort,  though  it  is 
participated  in  by  only  the  most  ignorant  of 
the  people.  There  seems  to  be  no  more 
thought  of  symbolism  than  in  our  eating  of 
Easter  eggs,  and  no  more  sentiment  than  in 
most  of  our  Fourth  of  July  noise.  It  only 
shows  that  the  half-clothed  and  half-civilized 
native  peones  and  their  families  have  as  much 
barbaric  love  of  demonstration  as  many  of  us. 
For  a  stranger,  however,  it  is  full  of  curious 
interest  and  suggestion. 


256 


XXI 

LAST  WORDS 

NO,  it  is  not  true  that  the  Rio  Grande 
makes  a  'barrier  four  centuries  wide. 
We  have  a  quite  immediate  reason  for 
being  interested  in  a  people  who  are  so  des- 
tined to  affect  us  and  to  be  affected  by  us. 
They  recognize  ;the  future  and  are  prepar- 
ing for  it;  not  only  is  English  taught  in  all 
their  schools,  as  we  have  seen,  but  hundreds 
of  their  young  people  are  studying  in  vari- 
ous institutions  in  the  United  States.  It 
behooves  us  to  know  what  kind  of  people 
they  are.  "They  are  all  gentlemen  of  the 
deadly  knife  or  the  too  ready  pistol,"  says 
one.  ' '  The  Mexican  of  position  is '  an  adroit 
and  plausible  rascal.  The  poor  Mexican  is 
a  petty  thief.  They  are  polite,  but  their 
politeness  means  nothing.  A  Northerner 
can  never  understand  them;  and  they  do  not 
wish  him  "to." 
Now  it  is  true  that  the  carrying  of  arms  is 

257 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

more  common  in  Mexico  than  among  us, 
though  less  common  just  before  the  recent 
outbreak  than  a  few  years  earlier.  That  is 
not  a  race  characteristic,  but  belongs  to  a 
state  of  society,  as  it  did  in  the  pioneer  days 
of  our 'own  West.  I  doubt  whether  we,  less 
accustomed  to  have  weapons  at  fingers' 
ends,  should  be  more  restrained  in  the  use  of 
them  if  they  be  came 'fashionable  ornaments 
among  us. 

It  is  true  that  not ''all  Mexicans  of  brains 
are  honest;  but  when  the  system  under 
which  business  and  government  have  been 
done  is  taken  into  account,  the  standards  of 
honesty  that  prevail  are  commendable.  It 
is  true  that  parasites  have  occupied  very 
many  of  the  public  offices;  but  Mexico  is  not 
alone  in  that  reproach.  A  son  of  a  gov- 
ernor in  one  state  drew  a  salary  as  in- 
structor at  an  institute  where  he  seldom  or 
never  appeared;  and  meanwhile  an  under- 
ling was  paid  a  miserable  pittance  to  do 
the  work.  Some  Americans  in  the  town 
characterized  this  arrangement  in  a  way 
that  doubtless  it  deserved;  but  they  did  not 
compare  it  with  our  system  of  appointing 
first  and  second  class  post-masters  to  a  sin- 
ecure and  paying  an  assistant  rather  meanly 
to  conduct  the  office.  The  governor's  son  was 
only  taking 'advantage  of  an  analogous  cor- 

258 


LAST  WORDS 

rupt  system  against  which  it  is  true  he 
ought  to  have  set  himself  resolutely  as  a 
good  citizen.  About  the  same  time,  in  the 
same  town,  another  young  Mexican  of  the 
same  social  set  was  dissolving  a  highly 
lucrative  partnership  and  going  out  to  make 
a  place  for  himself  in  a  new  community  be- 
cause he  said  he  wished  to  be  an  honest  man. 
The  ingenious  conclusion  is  that  Mexicans 
are  both  honest  and  dishonest.  There  are 
petty  thieves  among  the  poor  and  the  un- 
fortunate. As  everywhere,  their  number 
depends  a  good  deal  on  the  :  extent  and  de- 
gree of  misery  that  prevails,  and  on  the 
measures  taken  to  discourage  their  activ- 
ity. As  for  ''veracity,  it  has  its  different 
codes  and  interpretations.  A  young  man 
who  was  studying  English  in  a  private 
class  said  to  the  teacher:  "The  hours  of  my 
work  have  changed  so  that  I  can  no  longer 
attend."  Two  days  later  he  made  a  spe- 
cial errand  to  say:  "I  have  lied  to  you.  My 
friends  tell  me  that  you  Americans  are  very 
literal,  and  that  with  you,  if  I  mean  to  be 
truthful,  I  must  tell  the  exact  ''truth.  Now 
the  fact  is  that  I  have  lost  my  employment 
and  cannot  afford  to  pay  for  more  lessons 
at  present.  I  hope  to  come  back  within  a 
few  days  or  weeks."  The  Mexican  is  not 
literal.  But  considerable  acquaintance  with 

259 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

him  does  not  make  me  think  him  especially 
given  to  deceiving  others  to  their  hurt. 

That  he  is  polite  cannot  be  denied.  If 
you  meet  a  stranger  or  a  procession  of  them 
on  any  highway  not  a  city  street,  there  will 
be  none  so  lowly  or  so  haughty  that  he  will 
not  look  to  exchange  greetings  with  you.  A 
baggage  man  will  not  bellow  "One  side!'7 
but  will  call  instead,  "With  your  permis- 
sion, Senor!"  If  you  have  business  deal- 
ings with  a  Mexican,  he  may  not  always 
have  your  interest  foremost  in  his  mind; 
but  to  treat  you  with  a  manner  lacking  in 
consideration  would  be  to  violate  his  own 
breeding.  There  are  a  great  many  humor- 
ous and  entirely  true  stories  of  the  courte- 
ous airs  with  which  gentlemen  of  the  cross- 
roads used  to  ''divest  travelers  of  their  be- 
longings. One  relates  that  a  bandit  asked 
an  American  if  he  would  graciously  conde- 
scend to  favor  him  with  "a  light."  The 
American  answered  that  it  would  be  his 
greatest  pleasure.  Before  his  L  action  was 
comprehended,  he  had  thrust  the  cool  end 
of  his  cigarette  into  the  barrel  of  the  small 
revolver  that  he  was  carrying  ready  in  hand, 
and  thrust  the  other  end 'up  to  the  mouth  of 
the  suppliant  Latin.  The  only  part  of  this 
story  that  is  not  characteristic  is  the  slow- 
ness of  the  bandit.  But  if  the  Mexican  is 

260 


LAST  WORDS 

polite  it  ought  not  to  be  imputed  to  him  for 
evil,  as  he  inherited  it  from  both  his  Span- 
ish and  his  Aztec  ancestors,  and  it  works  no 
inconvenience  to  !any  one  except  in  the  fact 
that  politeness  is  looked  for  in  return.  The 
American  railroad  man  has  largely  elimi- 
nated himself  from  the  republic  not  because 
he  was  inefficient  but 'because  he  carried  an 
air  of  contempt  which,  while  it  did  not  al- 
ways reflect  his  actual  feelings,  did  always 
offend  the  sensitive  native.  I  have  had 
grateful  evidence  that  the  politeness  re- 
ferred ''to  is  not  always  hollow.  And  I  re* 
call  what  an  elderly  Englishman  told  me  of 
his  experience.  He  had  made  a  fortune  and 
had  lost  it  all  again.  "  And  who  do  you  sup- 
pose came  and  offered  me  help  to  get  back 
on  my  feet?"  he  said.  "Not  any  of  the  Eng- 
lishmen that  I  had  known  from  boyhood  and 
some  of  whom  could  have  done  it  easily, 
but  two  of  the  Mexicans  whose  high  com- 
pliments I  had  never  thought  meant  any- 
thing more  than  an  extravagant  habit.  I 
tell  you,  they  showed  themselves  men  and 
friends,  and  I  have  never  forgotten  it." 
The  politeness  of  the  poor  has  at  least  so 
much  substance  that  you  will  constantly 
see  them  share  their  scant  meals  of  tortillas 
and  beans  and  do  other  acts  of  kindness  to- 
ward the  beggars  by  the  roadside.  They 

261 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

have  no  organized  charities  to  take  care  of 
worthy  cases  and  it  is  to  be  feared  many  un- 
worthy cases  share  in  the  bounty. 

The  writer  in  the  Outlook  mentioned 
above  quotes  the  owner  of  a  one-hundred- 
thousand-acre  ranch  in  New  Mexico  as 
saying:  "I  have  bought  tens  of  thousands 
of  sheep  from  Mexican  shepherds  with- 
out a  written  contract  and  never  had  one 
fail  to  do  as  he  agreed,  which  is  more 
than  I  can  say  for  American  stockowners." 
He  quotes  Judge  John  E.  McFie,  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Mexico, 
thus:  "  No  where  have  I  found  better  jurors 
or  men  with  a  higher  sense  of  justice  than 
the  Mexicans.  I  have  tried  murder  cases 
where  the  defendants  were  Mexicans  and 
every  member  of  the  jury  was  of  that  na- 
tionality, yet  have  always  found  the  verdict 
fairly  given  and  conviction  has  followed 
regularly  if  the  testimony  warranted. 
They  are  good  citizens,  are  fair-minded,  and 
adhere  to  the  Court's  instructions  more 
closely  than  any  other  jurors  I  have  found. 
Probably  there  are  more  defendants  of  this 
race  than  of  Americans,  proportionately  to 
the  population,  but  their  offenses  are 
mostly  of  a  minor  sort." 

Remember    that  this  relates  chiefly    to 
poor  Mexicans  of  the  laboring  class,  though 

262 


LAST  WORDS 

as  once  indicated  above  there  are  also  many 
cultured  and  intelligent  Mexicans  who  have 
preferred  never  to  leave  the  United  States. 
Is  it  not  gratuitous  to  assume  that  such 
people  in  their  own  country  would  be  in- 
capable of  democratic  self-government,  once 
given  a  little  practical  training  and  a 
chance?  Yet  this  was  the  assumption  of 
the  American  press  in  general  during  the 
revolution  of  1910-11.  Not  until  its  close, 
indeed,  did  the  American  press  admit  that 
any  such  movement  was  under  way.  The 
Public,  in  its  issue  of  June  9, 1911,  said:  "In 
less  than  a  year  after  all  the  great  news- 
papers were  assured  that  there  was  no  revo- 
lution in  Mexico — assured  into  silence — 
they  are  obliged  to  report  the  complete 
overthrow  of  Diaz  by  a  revolution  that  was 
in  full  vigor  while  they  ignored  it.  Was 
this  poor  journalism,  or  what?" 

The  revolution  ran  its  course,  constitu- 
tional government  was  set  going  for  the  first 
time  in  a  generation,  and  the  reactionary 
efforts  that  every  one  foresaw  were  soon  be- 
gun with  more  than  the  expected  energy 
and  violence.  Since  then,  no  one  has  felt 
altogether  sure  of  the  course  that  affairs 
will  take.  The  Mexico  that  at  present  ex- 
ists, politically,  is  unfamiliar  to  me.  A  few 
months  before,  I  had  scarcely  heard  of  the 

263 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

men  who  came  into  prominence  with  the 
Madero  movement;  it  was  hard  for  any 
Mexican  to  be  generally  heard  of  who  did 
not  belong  to  Diaz's  group.  In  March, 
1911,  when  I  visited  the  city  of  Oaxaca,  a 
local  engineer  was  in  prison  for  disseminat- 
ing treasonable  ideas,  as  the  government  re- 
garded them.  His  friends  told  me  that  he 
would  doubtless  be  stood  against  a  wall  to 
face  a  firing  squad.  Three  months  later  I 
received  word  that  our  engineer  was  now 
jefe  politico  of  a  near-by  town  and  that  the 
district  superintendent  of  the  native  Meth- 
odists was  his  apoderado  (deputy).  Only 
those  somewhat  familiar  with  the  opposi- 
tion to  Protestant  work  in  Oaxaca  during 
the  past  can  appreciate  the  latter  fact;  nor 
can  those  who  never  chanced  to  talk  with 
his  anxious  friends  and  relatives  find  the 
ups  and  downs  of  the  engineer  so  exciting 
as  they  were  to  me ;  yet  some  notion  will  be 
gathered  of  how  complete  an  overturning 
had  taken  place  in  a  short  time. 

During  the  fall  of  1910  Francisco  Madero 
himself  was  in  prison.  On  the  7th  of  June, 
1911,  he  was  given  such  an  ovation  at  the 
capital  as  probably  no  other  Mexican  ever 
received.  And  there  at  the  heart  of  the  Re- 
public where  he  was  best  able  to  make  him- 
self understood,  the  people  never  ceased  to 


LAST  WORDS 

believe  in  him.  National  agencies  for  pub- 
licity, however,  were  at  no  time  so  highly 
developed  in  Mexico  as  agencies  '  for  the 
suppression  of  knowledge  long  were;  and 
even  if  the  best  means  for  the  purpose  had 
been  ready  at  hand  it  is  doubtful  whether 
Madero  would  have  had  the  art  to  use  them. 
It  is  a  great  deal  to  find  an  advanced  idealist 
and  an  administrator  united  in  one  man; 
and  that  he  should  also  be  both  a  politician 
and  a  military  genius  would  perhaps  be  too 
much  to  expect.  Madero  did  not  take  effec- 
ive  steps  to  keep  the  people  informed  of 
what, the  government  was  doing.  So  it  be- 
came possible  for  those  who  object  to  the 
imposition  of  taxes  on  the  great  landed  es- 
tates, those  who  are  hostile  to  any  and  all 
progressive  measures  whatsoever,  and  those 
who  merely  resented  being  dislodged  from 
their  places  under  the  despotism,  to  stir  up 
the  ignorant,  the  disinherited,  and  the  un- 
happy against  him.  The  real  cause  of  hat- 
red toward  him  being  that  he  was  a 
thoroughgoing  progressive,  they  made  the 
hypocritical  complaint  that  he  was  doing 
nothing  for  progress  or  in  the  interest  of  the 
poor.  It  is  true  that  those  who  had  unin- 
telligently  looked  for  immediate  and  direct 
confiscation  of  ill-gotten  lands  were  of 
course  disappointed.  They  lent  themselves 

265 


A    MEXICAN    JOURNEY 

to  the  movement  against  Madero,  ended  in 
his  overthrow  and  assassination  early  in 
1913,  by  the  reactionary  traitor  General 
Victoriano  Huerta,  whose  infamous  govern- 
ment the  United  States  refused  to  recognize 
even  in  the  de  facto  sense.  They  have  con- 
tinued to  embarass  the  now  existing  govern- 
ment of  President  Carranza.  Under  the 
fierce  and  fanatical  though  doubtless  sincere 
leadership  of  Emiliano  Zapata,  lately  ap- 
prehended and  killed  through  the  defection 
of  some  of  his  own  men,  they  have  overrun 
whole  states  in  the  South  and  even  briefly 
held  possession  of  the  capital.  Under  the 
less  worthy  though  vigorous  and  sagacious 
leadership  of  Francisco  Villa  they  have 
harassed  the  North,  provoked  the  United 
States  beyond  endurance  by  border  raids, 
and  otherwise  delayed  the  return  of  pros- 
perity and  peace.  To  their  groups,  however 
deserving  of  sympathy  the  rank  and  file  may 
be,  all  the  worst  elements  of  lawlessness  and 
brutality  naturally  hang  on.  They  are  the 
menace  of  national  security  in  Mexico  to- 
day; and  they  are  the  product  of  old  wrongs. 
As  for  the  active  military  leaders  who 
personally  took  the  field  for  the  '  counter- 
revolution, they  should  hardly  be  classed 
with  anf  group  of  interests  or  prejudices. 
Desperados  and  bold  adventurers  who  will 

266 


LAST  WORDS 

fight  for  hire  are  no  national  phenomenon; 
and  their  theory  is  very  simple. 

The  judgment  of  Americans  as  touching 
government  in  Mexico  has  been  too  much 
affected  by  the  belief  that  this,  that,  or  the 
other  element  is  favorable  or  unfavorable 
to  the  United  States.  It  may  be  well  to  re- 
mind ourselves  that  the  legitimate  choice  of 
any  leader  in  Mexico  has  only  secondary 
reference  to  us  and  that  such  choice  has 
reference  mostly  to  the  well  being  of  Mex- 
ico. A  president  or  governor  who  ardently 
desires  to  serve  the  Mexican  republic, 
whose  scheme  gives  due  regard  to  funda- 
mental justice,  and  who  has  the  force  to 
carry  out  his  scheme,  is  a  good  Mexican 
president  or  governor,  whatever  he  may 
think  of  us,  his  neighbors  on  the  North. 
That  Venustiano  Carranza,  like  his  former 
young  leader,  Madero,  is  a  man  of  the  most 
genuine  patriotism  and  of  very  high  ideals 
no  discerning  and  impartial  critic  can  well 
doubt.  His  attitude  toward  the  United 
States  has  been  uncertain  at  times,  but 
clearly  it  was  dictated  at  all  times  by  a  de- 
termination to  protect  the  just  rights  of  his 
own  people,  and  he  has  always  declared 
himself  personally  friendly  to  the  legiti- 
mate projects  of  Americans  in  Mexico. 
However  that  may  be,  it  is  by  his  aims  and 

267 


competence  as  a  servant  of  Mexican  dem- 
ocracy that  he  must  be  judged. 

As  for  Madero,  that  he  was  no  master 
^f  military  strategy  his  friends  and  enemies 
alike  have  agreed.  He  was  a  civilian  in 
ideals  and  in  natural  temper.  His  leader- 
ship was  a  moral  leadership  and  signified 
national  faith  in  the  possibility  of  a  genuine 
civil  government  for  the  nation.  If  he 
erred  it  was  in  trusting  overmuch  to  civil 
measures  and  dallying  with  men  like  Zapata 
when  nobody  but  himself  thought  he  could 
quiet  the  brigand  by  anything  but  the  iron 
hand.  The  recompense  of  armed  outlawry 
should  be  swift  and  terrible ;  and  to  make  it 
so  need  involve  no  suspicion  of  despotic 
purpose.  The  necessity,  if  government  is 
to  endure,  is  almost  axiomatic. 

Carranza  is  of  Madero 's  school  of  think- 
ing, but  sterner  and  less  sentimental. 

Whether  the  friends  of  democratic  consti- 
tutional government  shall  remain  upper- 
most will  depend  largely  on  the  courage,  re- 
sourcefulness, and  unwavering  patriotism 
of  a  few  individuals.  This  is  always  true 
at  a  crisis;  for  those  who  are  given  the 
greatest  power  to  serve  have  also  the  power 
to  betray.  Washington  and  his  immediate 
lieutenants  might  have  been  able  to  set  up 
an  American  tyranny,  if  they  had  so  willed. 


LAST  WORDS 

Fortunately,  though  soldiers  and  generals 
gallantly  participated,  Mexico  owes  its  de- 
liverance from  the  old  bondage  not  to  any 
general  mainly,  but  to  a  popular  uprising 
and  to  Francisco  Madero.  Bernardo  Reyes, 
the  only  general  of  whom  anything  was  ex- 
pected, proved  an  enemy  of  the  people's 
cause.  Men  like  Orozco  and  Villa  have  ex- 
hibited their  character  so  plainly  as  almost 
to  remove  the  peril  that  any  mere  fighter 
may  be  blindly  chosen  as  a  popular  idol. 
They  have  no  appeal  to  make  but  a  shame- 
less appeal  to  force;  and  Mexico  is  genu- 
inely tired  of  that. 

That  turbulence  has  arisen  as  it  has 
proves  little  against  the  Mexican  people.  A 
larger  army  was  required  to  put  down  the 
Whiskey  Rebellion  in  the  United  States 
than  had  been  in  the  field  against  the  Brit- 
ish at  any  time  during  our  war  for  inde- 
pendence; yet  the  Whisky  Rebellion  w^is 
put  down.  We  had  not  only  our  Arnold 
during  the  Revolution  but  our  Burr  after  it 
was  over;  yet  the  Republic  survived  and  the 
guardians  of  order  and  safety  kept  their 
seats.  All  sincere  and  intelligent  demo- 
crats will  hope  that  Carranza  in  Mexico 
may  keep  his,  till  he  can  vacate  it  for  an 
honorable  successor  elected  by  the  people, 
and  that  so  the  principles  of  Juarez  may  be- 
come established. 

269  I 


A    MEXICAN   JOURNEY 

If  the  Republic  fails  it  will  be  because 
some  supremely  powerful  man  has  risen 
and  has  become  a  traitor  to  the  people ;  and 
if  no  such  man  succeeds  in  rearing  himself 
till  Carranza's  successor  is  elected,  t 
cause  will  be  reasonably  safe.  Whatever 
the  outcome,  be  assured  that  there  is  a  gen- 
eral and  sincere  longing  among  the  people 
for  the  guarantees  of  liberty,  a  genuine 
respect  for  law,  and  a  full  consciousness  of 
the  necessity  for  order  and  individual  sub- 
mission to  the  sovereign  will.  Sometime, 
too,  if  not  at  present,  these  things  will  be 
achieved.  The  Indian  patience  waits  long 
but  does  not  forget  its  object.  Perhaps 
something  of  the  old  high  dauntlessness  of 
the  Spaniard  ought  also  to  be  separately 
recognized  in  the  Mexican  spirit.  Or  per- 
haps we  should  recognize  in  it  simply  hu- 
manity aware  of  itself.  For  it  Mexican 
men  by  the  thousands  have  willingly 
languished  in  prisons.  Mexican  women 
have  offered  their  bodies  as  food  for  starv- 
ing soldiers.  For  over  a  century  it  has  per- 
sisted, often  obscured,  sometimes  betrayed 
into  error,  but  never  quenched;  and  in  the 
end  it  will  not  be  denied. 


270 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bancroft,  "  The  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  "; 
"A  Popular  History  of  the  Mexican  People";  "Re- 
sources and  Development  of  Mexico";  "History  of 
the  Pacific  States."  Prescott,  "  Conquest  of  Mexico." 
Wallace,  "The  Fair  God."  Biart  (Lucien),  "The 
Aztecs,"  translated  from  the  French  by  J.  L.  Garner. 
Humboldt,  "A  Political  Essay  on  the  Kingdom  of 
New  Spain;"  "Geography  of  the  New  Continent,"  5 
vols.  Lord  Kingsborough,  "Antiquities  of  Mexico," 
9  vols.  Brocklehurst,  "Mexico  To-day."  Wright, 
"Picturesque  Mexico."  Tweedie,  "Mexico  As  I  Saw 
It."  Hale  (Susan),  "History  of  Mexico."  Burke 
(N.  R.),  "Life  of  Benito  Juarez."  Stephens,  "Inci- 
dents of  Travel  in  Yucatan."  Lumholtz,  "Unknown 
Mexico."  Creelman,  "Master  of  Mexico."  Flandrau, 
"Viva  Mexico."  Smith,  "A  WTiite  Umbrella  in  Mex- 
ico." Kirkham,  "Mexican Trails."  Butler,  "Sketches 
in  Mexico."  Barton,  "Impressions  of  Mexico." 
Campbell,  "Guide  to  Mexico."  Terry,  "Guide  to 
Mexico."  Gooch,  "  Face  to  Face  with  the  Mexicans." 
Lummis,  "The  Awakening  of  a  Nation."  Ober  (F.  A.), 
"Travels  in  Mexico";  "History  of  Mexico."  Romero 
(M.),  "Geographical  and  Statistical  Notes  on  Mex- 
ico"; "Mexico  and  the  United  States."  Calderon  de 
la  Barca  (F.  I.),  "Life  in  Mexico  during  a  Residence 
of  Two  Years  in  that  Country";  "Mexican  Year 
Book."  Noll  (A.  H.)  &  McMahon  (A.  P.),  "Life  and 
Times  of  Miguel  Hidalgo  y  Costillo."  Turner  (J.  K), 
"Barbarous  Mexico."  Edwards  (W.  S.),  "On  the 
Mexican  Highlands."  Harper  (H.  H.),  "Journey  in 
Southeastern  Mexico."  Wallace  (D.),  "Beyond  the 
Mexican  Sierras";  "Foreign  Relations."  Douglas 
(J.),  "United  States  and  Mexico." 

871 


INDEX 


ACAPTTLCO,  223-224. 
Acolhuas,  the,  16. 
Adobe  houses,  249-250. 
Agriculture,  god  of,  187-188. 
Agricultural  products,  amount  of, 

90. 

Aguas  Calientes,  202. 
Alameda,   park  in   Mexico   City, 

120,  137-143. 
Amecameca,  190. 
American  capital  invested  in  Mex- 
ico, 243. 
Americans    in    Mexico,    237-238, 

252-253. 

Animals,  quiescent  spirit  of  Mex- 
ican, 203-205. 
Archaeology,    Mexican,    133-135. 

See  Ruins. 

Arrow-head  souvenirs,  189. 
Art- 
cathedral,  Mexico  City,  121. 
church  of  Santa  Rosa,  Quere- 

taro,  203. 
"Descent  from  the  Cross"  at 

Tzintzuntzan,  222. 
despoliation  of  objects  of,  by 

the  French,  132,  203. 
Juarez  statue.  Mexico  City, 

140. 
National      Academy       (San 

Carlos),  119,  130-133. 

post  office,  Mexico  City,  138. 

Puebla  cathedral,  180-181. 

theater,  Mexico  City,  138. 

Arts,  aptitude  of  Mexicans  for  all 

the,  140-142,  251. 
"Aunt  Mary, "21 1-212. 


Aztec  Indians,  16-22. 

antiquities,  National  Museum, 

133-135. 
calendar  of,  135. 
choice  of  site  of    town    by, 

136. 

conquest  of,  145. 
"Forum  "of,  136. 
pyramid,  Mexico  City,  120. 
religion  of,  125. 

BANDITS,  161,  210,  217,  260-261. 
Bates,  Katharine  Lee,  work  by, 

cited,  248. 

Blanket,  a  Mexican,  210-211. 
Borda  Garden,  Cuernavaca,  174- 

175. 

Borde,  Joseph  le,  174,  175. 
Bryan,  W.  J.,  200. 
Bullfighters,  11. 
Bullfights,  143-144,  248-249. 

CABRERA,  painting  attributed  to, 

222. 

Calderon  de  la  Barca,  Mme.,  149. 
Calendar,  the  Aztec,  135. 
Campeche,  34. 
Canal,  the  Viga,  165-169. 
Canals,  Xochimilco,  169,  171. 
Canoe  trip,  Viga  Canal,  164-169. 
Carlota,  Empress,  137.  143,  153- 

154,  175. 

Carreflo,  Juan'de,  paintings  by,  132. 
Casas,  Bartolome1  de  las,  portrait 

of,  132. 

Casas  Grandes,  the,  16. 
Catacombs,  Guanajuato,  203. 


273 


INDEX 


Cathedral— 

Cuernavaca,  174. 

Mexico  City,  120-121,  181. 

Puebla,  180-181. 
Catholicism  in  Mexico,   124-126, 

149-150. 

Cattle  raising,  Chihuahua,  234. 
Cemetery,  Real  del  Monte,  217- 

218. 

Chapala,  Lake,  205,  222. 
Chapultepec,  17,  120,  142-143. 
Charles  V,  Emperor,  180. 

statue  of,  142. 
Chichimec  Indians,  15-16. 
Chihuahua,  city  of,  228,  233-234. 
Chihuahua,  state  of,  234. 
Chinese,  224-225. 
Chinos,  Indians  called,  222. 
Chivela,  70-71. 
Cholula,  179,  182-189. 

Toltec  pyramid  at,  180,  185- 

188. 

Christmas  customs,  253-254. 
Church,  on  pyramid  at  Cholula, 

186. 
Churches — 

Cholula,  188. 

Mexico  City,  126-128. 

Puebla,  179-181. 

Queretaro,  203. 

Xochimilco,  170. 
City  Hall,  Mexico  City,  135-136. 
Ciudad  Porfirio  Diaz,  228. 
Civil  marriages,  149-150. 
Coatzacoalcos,  85-86. 
Cochineal  industry,  95. 
Colhuan  Indians,  17. 
Columbus,  remains  of,  32. 
Constitution  of  Juarez,  162-163. 
Copper,  annual  production  of,  233. 
Cornish  miners,  206. 
Cortez,  Fernando,  18,  21,  23,  94, 
101,  136,  145,  174,  183,  188, 
190,  203. 

palaces  of,  174. 
Courtesy  in  Mexico,  260-262. 
Coyoacan,  174. 


Cuauhtemoc,  statue  of,  22,  142. 

Cuautla,  175. 

Cuba,  30-33. 

Cuernavaca,  164,  172,  173-175. 

DIAZ,  POBFIMO,  11,  13,  28,  62,  73. 
accession  to  presidency,  157. 
birthplace,  Oaxaca,  97. 
capture  of  Puebla,  179. 
discontent    universal    under, 

159,  160. 
drainage  canal  completed  by, 

137. 
feeling  among  people  toward, 

160-162. 
form  of  Juarez'   government 

followed  by,  163. 
Indian  blood  of,  11. 
massacre  of  men  of  Tehuan- 

tepec  by,  73. 
overthrow  of,  263-266. 
principle  of  government,  157-^ 

159. 

proof  of  strong  hand,  217. 
relations    with   Juarez,    154- 

157. 

repressive  measures  of,  74-75. 
Rurales  organized  by,  74. 
Diego,  Juan,  127. 
Dollars,  Mexican,  207-208. 
Domes  of  churches,  170,  179-180. 
Drainage  canal,  Mexico  City,  136- 

137,  165. 
Drawn-work     on     linen,     Aguas 

Calientes,  202. 
Drinking,  question  of,  68-70. 
Durango,  city  of,  228-229. 
iron  deposits  at,  251. 

EAGLE  PASS,  Texas,  228. 
Easter  celebration,  254-256. 
Egypt,    correspondences   between 

Mexico  and,  133-134. 
Electric  lighting  systems,  250-251. 
El  Paso,  Texas,  228. 
English  colony,  Real  del  Monte, 

217-219. 


274 


INDEX 


English  language,  progress  of,  in 

Mexico,  236-245. 
Eslava,  172. 

FAMILY  LIFE,  115-117,  177-178. 
Farm  product  statistics,  90. 
Flandrau,  C.  M.,  quoted,  5. 
Floating  gardens,  Xochimilco,  167. 
Flower  market,  Mexico  City,  119, 

128. 
French — 

attempt  of,  to  conquer  Mex- 
ico, 150-153. 

defeats  and  victories,  179. 
spoliation  of  art  treasures,  132, 

203. 

French  language,  use  of,  in  Mex- 
ico, 241,  242. 
Frontera,  86. 

Funeral,  Real  del  Monte,  218. 
Funeral  electric  cars,  Mexico  City, 
113. 

GARCES,  FRAY  JULIAN,  179. 

Germans  in  Mexico,  243. 

Gobelin  tapestries,  Puebla  cathe- 
dral, 180. 

Gold,  annual  production  of,  233. 

Guadalajara,  176,  202. 

Guadalupe,  chapel  of  Lady  of, 
126-128. 

Guanajuato,  city  of,  202,  222. 

Guatemala,  secession  of,  146. 

Guaymas,  224. 

HARBORS — 

Acapulco,  223. 

Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  86. 

Tehuantepec,  81-82. 

western  coast,  224. 

Yucatan,  34. 
Harger,  C.  M.,  Outlook  article  by, 

235-236,  262-263. 
Havana,  31-33. 
Henequin-growing,  39,  42,  51. 
Hidalgo,    Miguel,    145,    160-161, 
234. 


Honduras,  originally  a  part  of 
Mexico,  146. 

Huitzilopochitli,  god  of  war,  19. 

Humboldt,  A.  von,  cited  and 
quoted,  4,  86,  101,  125. 

Huntingdon,  Arthur  M.,  "Note- 
book in  Northern  Spain"  by, 
248. 

IBARRA,   painting   attributed   to, 

222. 
Indians,  10-11,  14-22. 

laborers  in  mines,  231-232. 

of  western  sierras,  222. 

sulphur    carriers,    Popocate- 
petl, 190. 

Tarahumare,  234. 
Inlay  work,  Puebla  cathedral,  181. 
Interoceanic  Railway,  182. 
Iron  deposits,  251. 
Iturbide,  Augustin  de,  145,   146, 

147,  148,  179. 
Ixtaccihuatl,  143,  180,  199. 

mosaic  picture  of,  138. 

JALISCO,  state  of,  202. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  cited,  122-123. 

Juarez,  Benito,  11,  97,  148,  158. 

becomes  president,  148. 

government  of,  154-156. 

Madero  the  representative  of 
principles  of,  268-269. 

measures   of,   concerning   re- 
ligious toleration,  150. 

statue,  140. 

veneration  for  name  of,  160. 
Juarez,  town  of,  Chihuahua,  228. 
Juchitan,  72. 

Jungle,  Tehuantepec,  70-71,  83- 
85. 

LABORERS — 

in  mines,  Zacatecas,  231-232. 
Yucatan  plantations,   44-46, 

51-56. 

Lady  of  Guadalupe,  chapel  of, 
126-128. 


275 


INDEX 


La  Quemada,  229. 

Laredo,  Texas,  228. 

Lead,  annual  production  of,  233. 

Lumbering,  Chihuahua,  234. 

McFiE,  JUDGE  JOHN  R.,  quoted, 

262-263. 

Madero,  Francisco,  13,  62,  253. 
government    established    by, 

162,  265-270. 
Madero     revolution,    253,     263- 

270. 
Maguey  fields.  164,  166,  206,  207, 

215-216. 

Malintzi,  Mt.,  180. 
Maltrata  curve,  106. 
Manufactures — 

at  Chihuahua,  234. 
of  iron  and  steel,  251. 
Manzanillo,  224. 
Marriage,  civil,  149-150. 
Massacre  of  men  of  Tehuantepec 

by  Diaz,  72-73. 
Maximilian,  Emperor,   143,  153- 

154,  203. 
Maya   Indians,   Yucatan,   44-45, 

47-48. 

Mazatlan,  224. 
Merida,  34,  41,  46. 
Metric  system,  use  of,  208. 
Mexican  Railway,  223-224. 
Mexican  War,  143,  147. 
Mexico — 

agriculture,  90. 
animals,  203-205. 
archaeology,  49,  133-135. 
area,  2-3. 

art  and  architecture,  119,  121, 

130-133,  140-142,  180-181, 

203,  221,  222,  251. 

bullfights,   143-144,  248-249. 

Catholicism  in,  124-126,  149- 

150. 

climate,  6-9,  164. 
coinage,  207-209. 
Constitution  of  Juarez,  162- 
163. 


Mexico  (cont'd) 

contrasts  and  contradictions, 

6. 

drinking  customs,  68-70. 
family  life,  115-117,  177-178. 
French  in,  150-153,  179. 
government,    145-163,    265- 

270. 
harbors,  34,  81-82,  86,  223- 

224. 

history,  145-160. 
honesty  of  people,  262-263. 
Indians,    10-11,    14-22,   222, 

234. 

Inquisition  in,  146. 
iron  deposits,  251. 
lakes,  222. 

languages  in,  236-245. 
Madero  revolution,  253,  263- 

270. 

manufactures,  234,  251. 
mineral    resources,    80,    233, 

251. 

mineral  wealth  per  year,  233. 
missionaries,  124-126. 
money,  207-209. 
mountains,  4-5,  190-201. 
music,  141. 

national  customs,  248-256. 
original  extent,  146-147. 
people,  10-22,  72-73,  77-81, 

121-124, 215,  217,  222,  224- 

228,  235-237. 
people  who  will  inherit,  171- 

172. 

politeness  in,  260-262. 
professions  and  trades,  251- 

252. 
progress  of  English  language, 

236-245. 
railroads,  23-24,  81-82,  87- 

88,  110,  223,  224,  228,  239. 
religions,  124-126,  148-150. 
silver   mines,    206-207,    229- 

233. 

the  new  Republic,  263-270. 
towns,  202-209. 


276 


INDEX 


Mexico  (cont'd) 

vegetation,  83-85. 

weights  and  measures,   207- 

209. 

western  coast  line,  220. 
women,  72-80,  121-122,  225- 

226. 

Mexico  City,  67,  109-144. 
Americans  in,  240. 
art,  133-135,  138. 
atmospheric  pressure,  9. 
bullfights,  143-144,  248-249. 
cathedral,  120-121,  181. 
choice  of  site,  136-137. 
churches,  126-128. 
City  Hall,  135-136. 
comparisons  with  other  cap- 
ital cities,  111-112, 143-144. 
cosmopolitan  character,  110- 

111. 

drainage  canal,  136-137. 
English  language  in,  240-241. 
Flower  market,  119,  128. 
gaiety  of,    considered,    143- 

144. 

hotels,  110. 
houses,  115-117. 
National    Academy    of    Arts 

(San  Carlos),  119,  130-132. 
National   Museum,    133-135. 
National  Palace,  119. 
National    Pawn    Shop,    119, 

129-130,  214. 
newspapers,  109. 
opera  in,  139. 
parks,  119-120,  137-143. 
people,  139. 
post  office,  137-138. 
residences,  115-118. 
slums,  139. 
theater,  138-139. 
Thieves'   Market,    119,    128- 

129. 

Michoacan,  state  of,  202. 
Minerals,  Tehuantepec,  80. 
Mines,  Guanajuato,  202. 
Mining,  229-233. 


Mint,  Guanajuato,  202. 
Missionaries,  124-126. 
Mitla,  ruins  at,  100,  103-106. 
Monte  Alban,  ruins  of,  98-99. 
Montejo,  house  of,  Merida,  47. 
Monterey,  228,  235. 

iron  and  steel  plant  at,  251. 
Montezuma,  143. 
Morelia,  202,  222. 
Morelos,  valley  and  state  of,  164, 

175. 

Morro  Castle,  30-31. 
Murillo,  paintings  by,  121,  132. 
Music,  Mexican  appreciation  of, 

141. 

NAPOLEON  III,  schemes  of,  150- 

153. 
National  Academy  of  Arts,  119, 

130-132. 

National  Museum,  133-135. 
National  Palace,  119. 
National  Pawn  Shop,  119,   129- 

130,  214. 

Negroes,  Mexican,  225. 
Nogales,  Arizona,  228. 
Nogales,  Sonora,  228. 
Nuevo  Laredo,  228. 

OAXACA,  city  of,  92,  94-98,  174, 

250,  264. 

Oaxaca,  state  of,  13,  92,  264. 
Ojo  de  Agua,  lake,  212. 
Omitlan,  212,  215. 
Onyx,  Mexican,  121. 
Opera,  Mexico  City,  139. 
Orizaba,  city  of,  106. 
Orizaba,  Mt.,  179,  199. 
Orozco,  insurgent  leader,  267. 
Outlook  article,  cited  and  quoted, 

235-236,  262-263. 
Ox-carts,  82,  96. 
Oxen,  Cholula  road,  183. 

PACHUCA,  205-209,  217. 
Paintings — 

cathedral,  Mexico  City,  121. 


877 


INDEX 


Paintings  (cont'd) 

"Descent  from  the  Cross"  at 
Tzintzuntzan,  222. 

National  Academy,  132. 

Puebla  cathedral,  180-181. 
Palm  shacks,  Mexican,  249-250. 
Parra,  Felix,  painting  by,  132,  133. 
Paseo  de  los  Cocos,  Vera  Cruz,  63. 
Patzcuaro,  Lake,  222. 
Pearsons,  the,  25,  87. 
Peons,  122-123,  226-227,  231-232. 
Perez,  Senor,  192,  193,  198. 
Pesos,  Mexican  dollars,  207. 
Physicians,  Mexican,  251. 
Politeness,  Mexican,  260-262. 
Popocatepetl,  143,  179,  180,  187. 

altitude,  190. 

appearance,  191. 

ascent  of,  190-201. 

comparative  ease  of  ascent, 
201. 

descent  of,  199-200. 

description  of  crater,  197-198. 

meaning  of  name,  191. 

mosaic  picture  of,  138. 

pronunciation,  191. 

railway  to,  projected,  88. 

view  from  summit,  198. 
Post  office,  Mexico  City,  137-138. 
Pottery  of  Guadalajara,  202. 
Prehistoric    monuments,    Uxmal, 

49.     See  Ruins. 
Prescott,   W.   H.,   "Conquest  of 

Mexico"  by,  21. 
Progreso,  34,  41,  51. 
Protestantism    in    Mexico,     124, 

125-126. 

Public,  the,  quoted,  263. 
Puebla,  city  of,  175-181. 

cathedral,  180. 

churches,  179-181. 

history,  178-179. 

naming  of,  179. 

population,  176. 

society,  177-178. 

suburbs,  176. 

tiles  made  at,  180. 


Puebla,  state  of,  175,  176. 
Puerto  Mexico,  85-86. 
Pulque,  16,  206-207. 
Pyramid — 

Aztec,  Mexico  City,  120. 

Toltec,  Cholula,  180, 185-188. 
Pyramids  of  Sun  and  Moon,  108, 
186. 

QUERETARO,  202. 

chapel  at,  203. 

execution  of  Maximilian  at, 

153. 
Quetzalcoatl,  god  of  peace,  19. 

RAILWAYS — 

building  of  first,  24. 

connections  by,  with  Umted 
States,  110,  228. 

English  spoken  on,  239. 

on  west  coast,  224. 

Tehuantepec  line,  81-82,  87- 

88. 

Ranchmen,  characteristics  of,  192. 
Rattlesnakes,  Lake  Chapala,  205. 
Real,  shilling,  208. 
Real  del  Monte,  210,  216,  217,  218. 
Regla,  210,  212-215. 
Regla,  Count  of,  214. 
Religious  toleration,  148-149. 
Reni,  Guido,  paintings  by,  132. 
Reyes,  Bernardo,  267. 
Rubber  industry,  88-90. 
Rubens,  paintings  by,  132. 
Ruins — 

La  Quemada,  229. 

Mitla,  100,  103-106. 

Monte  Alban,  98-99. 

Tula,  16-17. 

Uxmal,  49. 

Yucatan,  48-50. 

Rurales,  organization  of,  by  Diaz, 
74. 

SACRIFICIAL  STONES,  135, 168, 184. 
Salina  Cruz,  82-83,  223. 
San  Angel,  suburb  of,  137. 


278 


INDEX 


San  Antonio,  town  of,  212. 

San  Antonio,  Texas,  235. 

San  Bias,  224. 

San  Carlos,  Academy  of,  119,  130- 

132. 
San  Juan  de  Ulua,  Castle  of,  Vera 

Cruz,  61-62. 
San  Juan  Teotihuacan,  Pyramids 

at,  108. 

San  Luis  Potosi,  202. 
Santa   Anna,   Antonio  Lopez   de, 

147-148. 

Santa  Lucrecia,  67-70. 
Santa  Rosa,  church  of,  Queretaro, 

203. 
Santo  Domingo,  church  of,  Oax- 

aca,  96. 

Seward,  William  H.,  cited,  148. 
Silver,  annual  production  of,  233. 
Silver  mining,  206-207. 
Slavery  question,  Yucatan,  51-56. 
Slums,  Mexico  City,  139. 
Southern  Cross,  the,  216. 
Spaniards  in  Mexico,  20-22. 
Spanish  language,  displacement  of, 

and  reasons,  241-242. 
Springs — 

at  Xochimilco,  169. 
sulphur,  at  Cuautla,  175. 
Statues — 

Mexico  City,  140,  142. 
of  Hidalgo,  145. 
Puebla  cathedral,  180. 
Steel  manufacture,  Monterey,  251. 
Stephens,  John  L.,  cited,  50. 
Suarez,  Pino,  48. 
Sulphur  from  Popocatepetl,  J90, 

198. 
Sulphur  springs,  Cuautla,  175. 

TACUBAYA,     suburb     of     Mexico 

City,  137. 
Tampico,  57. 

Tapestries,  Puebla  cathedral,  180. 
Tarahumare  Indians,  234. 
Taxicabs,  Mexico  City,  112. 
Tehuacan,  93-94. 


Tehuantepec,  Isthmus  of,  67-91. 
Tehuantepec,     town     of,     72-73, 

75-82. 

Temples,  Cholula,  188. 
Teotihuacan,  pyramids  at,  186. 
Tetrazzini,  139. 
Texas,  cities  of,  corresponding  to 

cities  across  the  border,  228. 
Texcoco,  Lake,  127,  179. 
Theaters,  138-139,  203. 
Thieves'  Market,  119,  128-129. 
Tile  manufacture,  Puebla,  180. 
Time-tables,  the  matter  of,  65-66. 
Titian,  paintings  by,  132,  222. 
Tlacolula,  100r101. 
Tlaxcalan  Indians,  19. 
Toltec  Indians,  15. 
Torreon,  228,  229,  233,  237-239 
Tree  of  Tule,  101. 
Tula,  ruins  at,  16-17. 
Tule,  village  of,  101-102. 
Tzintzuntzan,  painting  at,  222. 

UNITED  STATES — 

attitude  toward  Juarez'  gov- 
ernment, 150-153. 

capital     from,     invested     in 
Mexico,  243. 

citizens  of,  in  Mexico,  237- 
238. 

Mexicans  in,  236-237. 

railway  connections  between 
Mexico  and,  228.    See  also 
Railways. 
Uxmalj  ruins  of,  Yucatan,  49. 

Valle  National,  227. 
Velasco,  212,  215. 
Vera  Cruz,  23,  57-66. 
Viga  Canal,  the,  165-169. 

WALLACE,  LEW,  "Fair  God"  by, 

21. 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  203. 
Washwomen,  183. 
Waterfalls,  213-214,  250. 
Weights  and  measures,  207-209. 


INDEX 


White  Lady  (Ixtaccihuatl),  143. 
Women — 

community  of,  Tehuantepec, 

72-80. 

Mexico  City,  121-122. 
of   west    coast    towns,    225- 

226. 
Vera  Cruz,  58. 

XOCHIMILCO,  164-172. 
canals,  166,  169. 
churches,  170-171. 
floating  gardens,  167. 
possibilities  of,  171-172. 
springs,  169. 
the  Mexican  Venice,  173. 

YAQUI  LABORERS,  Yucatan,  44-46, 
51-56. 


Yucatan — 

henequin  production,  39,  42, 

61. 

imports,  39. 
laborers,  44-46,  51-56. 
people,  44-46. 
ruins,  48-50. 
seaports,  34. 
slavery  question,  51-56. 
water  and  soil,  42-43. 

ZACATECAS,  228,  *29-233. 
Zapata,  insurgent  leader,  267,  268, 
Zaragoza,  General,  179. 
Zempoaltepec,  Mt.,  99. 
Zocalo — 

Mexico  City,  119. 

Oaxaca,  97,  98. 
Zurbaran,  paintings  by,  132. 


280 


See  page  22. 


STATUE    OF    CUAUHTEMOC. 


BENITO   JUAREZ. 


"THE    TORTURE    OF    CUAUHTEMOC,"    NATIONAL    MUSEUM. 


DETAIL    FROM    CUAUHTEMOC    MONUMENT.     (SEE    FRONTISPIECE.) 


TARAHUMARE    CARRIERS. 


AMATECA    GIRL. 


r    / 


A    MEXICAN    KITCHEN. 


°       /        Porfirio  Dia 


JALISCO       '-,  Me 


MEXICO- 
OUTLINE 


^ 

lonterey  ~! 

/ 


-EON/ 


'Galveston 


GULF        OF 
MEXIC  0 


X.  <? 
•osi  ""- 


>taro/'-\ 

-•YQ\ 


|Tambi( 


aCruz 


*$%* 


••^      &,  •Wy~->      vyeraUruz          o^fJ 

^    J^Meyjoo    '--'apuet"/a     ®\_      o  ,eV^°    ro« 
'  Uj        imf''.  •  \  c*  *^~~>-or>>      t-Lv^— 

^^^'-••^^ 


;OAXACA"'   :--,....--( 
'•--Paxaca©  /  ^_-^p  ^ 

}      Tehuantcpeco^^^C^^^^N     /" 


UJ 


^r^K 

V  1 


< 

a 
e>       / 


^y 


ON    THE    ROAD    TO    MITLA. 


ZAPOTEC    CHILDREN    IN    RUINS    OF    MITLA. 


HALL  OF    MONOLITHIC    COLUMNS,    MITLA. 


RUINS    OF    MITLA. 


TURKEYS    GOING    TO    MARKET. 


MARKET,    MEXICO    CITY. 


CAU»IURIO  4ZTECA  0  PICDR*  Dtl  SOI 

•  (I  MtS  DC  OICICHIM  ML  »<0  OC  <790 


STONE    CALENDAR    OF    THE    AZTECS. 


INDIAN    WOMEN. 


PORFIRIO    DIAZ. 


CATHEDRAL    AT    PUEBLA. 


PYRAMID    AT    CHOLULA,    WITH    CHURCH    ON    SUMMIT. 


PYRAMID    AT    CHOLULA    FROM    FARTHER    SIDE. 


POPOCATEPETL. 


IXTACCIHUATL. 


POPOCATEPETL—  ASCENT. 


POPOCATEPETL—  DESCENT. 


LAKE    CHAPALA. 


CHIHUAHUA. 


rORREON. 


MONTEREY. 


VENUSTIANO    CARRANZA 

PHOTO3RAPH    BY   UNDERWOOD  &  UNDERWOOD.    NEW  YORK 


FRANCISCO    MADERO. 


118679 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  704  241     9 


